WRITE DIRECTION: Why is boarding a plane such a pain

WHY can’t they get this right ?

Despite the fact that travel by air has been around since before we were born, airlines still have one outstanding issue that they can’t seem to get right.

Have you ever noticed but just accepted that the most chaotic part of travel by air is how they initially get passengers onto the flight?

The loading process often resembles that of herding cats but often seems more like its panic time in an emergency as the throng rushes at the terminal gate in order to be first on board, possibly to grab the available overhead locker space for their carry-on excess luggage.

Over the years we have seen so many different methods trialled in order to achieve efficient and stress-free boarding, but still the airlines can’t get this simple process to work for them or their passengers.

It should be so simple to achieve this aim.

All passengers are firstly issued with a boarding pass, which means that they have been allocated a seat on the aircraft, so there is no need to panic about that.

If you book your flight early enough, you are given multiple choices to select where you prefer to sit.

Mostly the issue is to make sure you are not placed in the middle seat between the aisle and the window.

My preference has always been to sit as far up front as possible, preferably on an aisle and usually on the port side. That preference will differ according to personal choice.

But back to the loading conundrum.

The aircraft is a long narrow tube with the entrance door near the front, on the left or port side and in front of the wing. So why don’t they load the rear-seat passengers first, then work their way forward?

At present, most airlines are again trialing the ZONE approach and your zone is also featured on your boarding pass. Some airlines are trying to load the window seats first, which saves passengers finding their seats on the aisle, then needing to move again so that the window brigade can have access to that seat.

One US airline, which now boards by zone, allows those who were first to buy their seats into the first zone. You can imagine how that slows the process.

Some planes can be loaded through front or rear doors and doesn’t that create issues when people get on through the wrong door?

Others use the rush and panic method of first at the gate gets to board first.

None of the methods are foolproof so it’s clearly a work in progress.

Clearly a simpler and more efficient method of boarding needs to be found.

By John BLACKBOURN