A fast airplane boarding strategy using online seat assignment based on passenger classification

• Published in: Journal of air transport management Vol. 53; pp. 140 - 149
• Main Authors: Notomista, Gennaro, Selvaggio, Mario, Sbrizzi, Fiorentina, Di Maio, Gabriella, Grazioso, Stanislao, Botsch, Michael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2016
• Subjects: Agility coefficient; Aircraft; Algorithms; Boarding; Cost saving; Costs; Gates; Passengers; Seat allocation algorithm; Seats; State feedback; Strategy; Turnaround time; Boarding; Seat allocation algorithm; State feedback; Agility coefficient; Turnaround time; Cost saving
• ISSN: 0969-6997; 1873-2089
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2016.02.012

The minimization of the turnaround time, the duration which an aircraft must remain parked at the gate, is an important goal of airlines to increase their profitability. This work introduces a procedure to minimize of the turnaround time by speeding up the boarding time in passenger aircrafts. This is realized by allocating the seat numbers adaptively to passengers when they pass the boarding gate and not before. Using optical sensors, an agility measure is assigned to each person and also a measure to characterize the size of her/his hand-luggage. Based on these two values per passenger and taking into account additional constraints, like reserved seats and the belonging to a group, a novel seat allocation algorithm is introduced to minimize the boarding time. Extensive simulations show that a mean reduction of the boarding time with approximately 15% is achieved compared to existing boarding strategies. The costs of introducing the proposed procedure are negligible, while the savings of reducing the turnaround time are enormous, considering that the costs generated by inactive planes on an airport are estimated to be about 30 $ per minute. •Minimization of Turn-Around-Time and cost saving.•Strategy to speed up airplane boarding.•Online passenger seat assignment using multi camera system.•Passenger classification based on agility and hand-luggage estimation.