Added airport security and other measures have made long waits routine at airports following Sept. 11, 2001. But in only a few months, a new airplane boarding technique developed at ASU could shorten waiting time at gates nationwide.
Last July, America West Airlines asked the ASU industrial engineering department to develop a more efficient means of boarding an airplane. Professor Rene Villalobos was asked to direct the operation.
"I've done similar things, but nothing for an airline," Villalobos said. "After Sept. 11, on-time performance became a big problem."
The end result is a boarding method that has been dubbed the "reverse pyramid." With the reverse pyramid method, boarding begins at the back of the plane, but preference is given to passengers with window seats, then to middle seats, and finally the aisle seats.
If coordinated as planned, passengers won't have to squeeze by fellow patrons to get to their seat.
America West spokeswoman Amber Heule said the reverse pyramid should reduce boarding time by up to four minutes. While four minutes may seem minor, a small delay on a morning flight can turn into a large wait come the afternoon.
"The delays add up," Heule said. "They make a difference through the whole day."
In the past, America West has tried to speed up on-time performance by boarding passengers from the back of the plane to the front, without giving preference to window seats. Other techniques have boarded window passengers first, but didn't give regard to whether a passenger was at the front or the back of the plane.
Villalobos asked industrial engineering graduate student Menkes Van Den Briel to head up the project. Van Den Briel did field work at Los Angeles International Airport and recorded boarding patterns of passengers.
Once the research was collected, Van Den Briel and Villalobos developed a "mathematical model" that led to the formation of the reverse pyramid.
According to Heule, 75 percent of airports that America West flies to will switch to the reverse pyramid this summer.
Reach the reporter at andrew.bernick@asu.edu.
