Comments on: The Benefits of Annoying a Physicist

By: emeris

emeris — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 00:34:24 +0000

“The concept of minimizing boarding time is close to irrelevant to major carriers. So from an operational point of view the topic of the paper is a yawn.”

This is flat wrong. Southwest has said that adding 5 minutes average to their turn time would cost them $972 million more a year (not counting crew costs) and require 18 more planes. to maintain their service level NYT article (granted it is old, but the order of magnitude is likely still right)

The distinction that matters is long haul vs short haul. For trans-pacific flights turn time is basically irrelevant, but for short haul flights the 30 minutes on the ground at either end start to matter a lot. Say you have a plane on a route where it is an hour gate to gate. If you are rotating crews you can run at least 12 legs a day (southwest averages ~6 turns which means 8 legs per 737 per day as of 2006 so some are likely hitting this number). If you now take 5 minutes off each turn time that gets you an extra flight per day per plane which means an extra flight of profit with out the overhead of more planes.

By: Visões do caos «

Visões do caos « — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 22:30:47 +0000

[...] do caos aéreo, USA: “Using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo optimization algorithm and a computer simulation, I find [...]

By: Nico

Nico — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:54:16 +0000

The ability to board early – and therefore find overhead space above your seat – is considered a perk by frequent travelers. Such travelers are the ones that the airlines are catering to, and they typically avoid checking bags whenever possible. The concept of minimizing boarding time is close to irrelevant to major carriers. So from an operational point of view the topic of the paper is a yawn.

By: Lab koala

Lab koala — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 20:43:39 +0000

Checked bags weigh more, costing more fuel. It’s a compromise. But United seems to think that they save money by having people carry on.

By: The Almighty Bob

The Almighty Bob — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:50:46 +0000

“As far as improving the time, what I would do would be to give some benefit, perhaps a cash discount, or points, or a better meal, or whatever, to those passengers who checked one bag. The idea is that you need to make flying more expensive for people who insist on loading all their personal belongings into the cabin.”

Oh, if only. Ryanair’s (the most successful budget airline, IIRC) charge you if you want to check baggage, necessitating you carry all your belongings in the cabin (as one only flies Ryanair if you’re very cheap, and the price of baggage check is quite often more expensive than the ticket).

By: emeris

emeris — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 07:38:43 +0000

The only problem with the two door solution is that it is only usable in places where you can have passenger access directly to the tarmac (as opposed to via a jet way). The budget airlines in Europe apparently open both doors and just say “get on” with no assigned seats. It should also be noted that one of the major renovations needed for airports to accept the A380 is a dual jetway set up.

By: weichi

weichi — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 06:19:32 +0000

“As much fun as this problem is (and we’ve all thought about it waiting to board) I am a little disappointed to see that this particular author didn’t see the need to read (or even look for) any existing literature!”

Disappointing? Yes.

Surprising? Sadly, no.

By: Carl Brannen

Carl Brannen — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 05:45:56 +0000

I don’t see why it would be so difficult to implement the suggested boarding technique. It still amounts to putting letters on tickets and saying “now boarding tickets marked “A”).

As far as improving the time, what I would do would be to give some benefit, perhaps a cash discount, or points, or a better meal, or whatever, to those passengers who checked one bag. The idea is that you need to make flying more expensive for people who insist on loading all their personal belongings into the cabin.

By: Haelfix

Haelfix — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 04:14:02 +0000

Jetblue has the best solution. They open up both back and front of the plane, and board the zones in the middle first. They end up saving a lot of money according to the stewards i’ve asked about their relative speed =)

By: emeris

emeris — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 03:41:43 +0000

Also see http://www.cam.cornell.edu/~rfrongillo/mcm/

The paper is a little rough due to the whole thing (from seeing the problem, writing the code, and the paper) was done in 4 days Hopefully a cleaner version will end up on the arxiv some time in the near future. (We had been planning to do it anyway, but this is just extra motivation)