A discussion about the airline industry, airline employees, and all things related

As airlines continue to cut costs as much as possible in order to stay or become profitable, they are looking at many different ways to accomplish this.  United Airlines hired NASCAR pitcrews to help train their ground crews in ways to speed up the loading times of their aircraft.  Southwest is able to turn around aircraft at amazing speeds helping keep their planes in the air more time than on the ground.  But some airlines are looking at the way they load their aircraft and unload their aircraft. 

Ben at USAtoday's aviation blog, tells how AirTran, JetBlue and Southwest –- are testing boarding and deplaning passengers from both the front and rear doors of their aircraft. That could help speed up the boarding process, which is crucial for many low-cost carriers.

For example, one of the key elements in Southwest’s business model is to turn around planes as quickly, allowing the airline to maximize how many hours a day it can fly its jets.  AirTran is testing the procedure in Tampa, while JetBlue has employed it at  23 destinations.

Among those, he writes, are “finding a movable staircase” for the rear door and that fliers deplaning from the back of a jet must “negotiate the 15 to 18 stairs and walk across the tarmac to the gate.”

United Airline's airline within an airline, Ted, is moving gates at Denver International because United has been building duel boarding jetways for their Ted flights. 

USAtoday "Today in the Sky"

According to Ben's commenters, Southwest, Ted, America West, United Shuttle, and even Virign Blue (Australia) use the duel boarding.  Though all have different variations on the boarding process. 

I have expereienced it when I was traveling in Australia both on Virgin Blue and Qantas.  Definitely cut the boarding time by a third.  We started the boarding process and were pushing back from the gate in under 25 mins.  My question is, why haven't the airlines throught of this before?  I know Ted started it back in Jan., but in order to cut time on the ground, the airlines should have been doing this years ago.