Airline Efficiency

Airplanes:

I’m currently sitting on a Southwest flight writing this. Every time I get on an airplane I think to myself, there has to be a more efficient way to get people on and off of an airplane.

Airlines profits are inversely proportional to the amount of time an airplane spends on the ground. In laments terms this means that the more time an airplane spends on the ground the less money that Airline Company makes. This is because of a little term called Opportunity Cost *. Airlines have spent millions researching the costs associated with this downtime. For airlines with assigned seating this is easy. Load the plane from aft to front (excluding those who are in First Class and paid way too much for their ticket). This allows people who need an eternity to stow their luggage, pull out iPads, iPods, noise cancelling headphones, blankets and whatever the hell else they need for their one-hour flight.

Southwest on the other hand can’t do this. Southwest boards based on the order in which you check-in. Which is great for people who can't pan trips well in advance. Because Southwest check-in is 24 hours before departure this allows those who book a flight just a few days ahead of time the opportunity to still get a great seat. Southwest has grown into an airline industry leader of efficiency and profitability. They have made their name by offering low-cost, frequent, and generally short haul domestic flights. These, along with an exceptional oil futures play sometime back, have made Southwest a big player in the United States airline industry.

Back in college I did a Case Study** on Southwest and how they have become the model of efficiency they are now. The number one thing I have taken away from that is how they have reduced their time on the ground, which makes sense. Saving 5-10 minutes during the boarding process could equate to the airline being able to offer an additional flight on each route every day, as many of their flights only take an hour and a half.

Excluding the very front row, back row and emergency exit there are minimal, if any, advantages to your row selection. Except for how quickly you can disembark a plane. I see this as the number one reason people choose the row they do. So the question remains, how do you make this more efficient?

You board the plane from the opposite end that the plane deboards its passengers.

Most planes have 4 feasible entrances. 2 front and 2 aft. When you think about this, you immediately realize that Southwest would need to double the number of flyways in order to do this. This is surely an unfeasible option, as the costs of additional flyways would almost certainly outweigh the savings.

The flaw in this logic is that there is an additional variable. The direction the plane is faced when parked. What if you alternated the direction that a plane is faced during boarding?

To elaborate for clarity: During the first flight of the day you have everyone get on the front of the plane with the knowledge that people will exit through the rear (the plane will be parked backwards at the next gate). This encourages people who are interested in getting off the plane quickly to choose a seat in the back of the plane. People choosing rear seats frees the aisles and gets people into their seats more quickly. At the next stop you park the plane in the traditional manner.

Some of you may feel that 5-10 minutes of savings isn’t much, but I can assure you this is huge for airlines. Airlines track time on the ground extremely accurately and small savings can make huge differences when you are making thousands of flights a day.

Logistically I’m not sure if this is feasible with the way the exteriors of planes are designed (fueling, restocking supplies and luggage compartment access come to mind). From my limited knowledge of 737s (Southwest’s plane of choice) I believe this would be possible though.

I decided to keep the first post light and uncontroversial. Much more controversial topics to come including: Politics, international policy, social policy and religion just to name a few.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. If you have any input please feel free to leave a comment below.

* Opportunity Cost: Is what you give up to do one thing over another. Think of it like this. Going to the gym for an hour v. working for an hour. If you make $100 an hour and you can work for an indefinite amount of time and still get paid (i.e. the supply of work will never run out) then your opportunity cost for going to the gym for an hour is $100. You are effectively giving up an hour of your time from work to go get in better shape, visit the sauna, stare at women, whatever. It is more valuable to you to keep those 6-pack abs than that $100 would be. For all those economists out there: Yes I am making the assumption that $100 dollars is the next best option, as opportunity cost is the next best alternative you choose not to do.

**. Case Study: Basically is a technique for evaluating an event or series of events and the related decisions a company makes. You are given a set of facts and you evaluate what the company did well and what could have been done differently.

###Yes I know deboard isn’t a word, but if you can’t understand what it means then you have bigger problems to worry about.