In the 1970s, Southwest Airlines average turn time — meaning from
the time a plane arrives at the gate to the time it leaves the
gate — was only 10 minutes. Today, it's more like 45 to 55 minutes.
At that time, we had smaller aircraft only 122 seats on those
original 737. Southwest has grown and become more popular.
And we're just carrying more people on board than we did back
when we first started.
Regardless of which airline you're flying and where you're
going, boarding isn't typically an enjoyable part of the trip.
It'ss hot. It's time consuming. Everybody's just like in a rush.
Since the end of 2022, Southwest Airlines has been testing new
concepts to improve its turn times. CNBC flew out to Atlanta
to learn more. I just went through airport security and
now I'm heading to my gate. And I'm actually flying Southwest
today. So I'm very curious to see how long it takes us to
board.
Delays cost airlines and passengers about $33 billion
each year. But speeding up the boarding process isn't really a
priority for airlines - they've monetized everything about it.
The major airlines have raised billions of dollars off of their
loyalty programs. So it is very important that they keep them
appealing enough for customers.
The different boarding groups that we see today have emerged
because people value their priority in boarding. And so
airlines are using that to generate more revenue and reward
their best customers. Does that slow the process down? Maybe.
Boarding a plane in 2023 goes something like this. First, it's
typically travelers who need more time to board - those with
disabilities and small children. Then service members, followed
by first class, status members and premium customers. As for
the rest, that depends on the airline. Then some like
Southwest, give travelers the option to board in an earlier
group for a fee, of course. As you can see, everyone's getting
ready to board - people are lining up. Excuse me, sir, do
you mind telling me what position you are? I am eight.
How did you get that?
I paid up for it. It's a purely optional fee that people choose
to pay if they see the value in it. Right. So I think that that
is a great way for airlines to make money and also keep their
customer satisfaction high.
All right, it's now exactly 1015. The time that my flight is
supposed to start boarding. They are still de-boarding from the
previous flight. Besides having to wait for the plane to be
ready. If there are a lot of passengers there's typically
lines, travelers get stopped if they're boarding in the wrong
group, carrying too many bags or if their luggage is too large.
Another thing that particularly bothers me is a lot of the gate
agents talk at the same time and it's hard to tell which one is
the gate that you're sitting at. Meanwhile, people don't always
line up when and where they're supposed to causing even more
chaos.
Southwest does things a bit differently than other airlines
- there isn't assigned seating. So when you check in 24 hours
before your flight, you're given a boarding position. Passengers
line up at the gate according to those positions before walking
onto the plane, then it's first come first served for seat
selection. Southwest says its turn times are usually industry
leading and boarding takes 15 to 16 minutes.
That organization of that boarding process goes a long way
where we see some of the other processes out there. It's it's
kind of a mad dash to the door.
Of course with my prime A16 spot. I chose the exit route. A
position I got because I set an alarm the day before so that I
would remember to check in exactly 24 hours before. However
for some, the process can be confusing.
I'm annoyed I was in line with everyone else. You know, I
didn't know there was different boarding groups. So instead of
being upfront now I'm all the way in the back. Once the line
is in motion, there's how fast people walk, how long it takes
to get luggage into overhead compartments and bottoms into
seats.
The luggage in particular is what slows it down the most.
Southwest doesn't charge for the first two checked bags.
When you have no carry ons or just one carry on it makes that
process flow a little bit more.
Meanwhile, others are reducing the number of carry on bags and
charging more in other ways. No carry ons is a new policy for
jet blues lowest fare.
Sometimes we ask ourselves is there anything else they can
charge for? They're already charging for seat assignments.
They're already charging for Wi Fi they're charging to check a
bag
As a result of his frustration with the boarding process. years
ago, Jason Steffen, who's an astrophysicist, set out to prove
there's a faster way to board planes. He used an optimization
algorithm and created a simulation.
The way that we had been boarding passengers onto an
airplane was about as bad as you could possibly get.
So he created his own. And here's how he says the methods
compare. Assuming we're boarding a plane with 25 rows and 150
passengers. Let's start with the techniques airlines have
traditionally used: front to back and back to front. They're
pretty self explanatory and would take about 30 minutes.
Next, there's WILMA, which means window middle aisle, that
process along with boarding randomly would take about 20
minutes. Then there's unassigned seating the method southwest
currently uses. According to Stephen, that would take about
18 minutes. Meanwhile, he says his technique would be the
fastest and about 15 minutes. His method boards one side of
the plane first, but window seats only and every other row.
Then the other side, same thing. That order continues alternating
sides of the plane until all window seats are filled. And
then the process repeats for middle and then aisle seats and
incorporates back to front WILMA boarding one side of the plane
first and every other row. Do you think it's realistic?
Because I personally just can't imagine, you know, a crew member
standing up there saying 30 window can go okay, 28 window
can go and really checking and making sure that we're doing you
know every other and also only the window seats.
I don't think it would be overly difficult to implement it.
Southwest Airlines kind of solves that problem already, you
could just line up in the right spot and then they would send
you out.
It would however mean that passengers traveling together
would have to board separately. And of course, boarding
airplanes is not as simple as that animation. There's plane
size, airport, airline, destination, weather conditions,
baggage, and so many other factors speed up or slow down
the process. The truth is, these days, boarding is pretty much
about who has the highest status or paid the most.
With the high end you have someone boarding first or close
to first a high price ticket that's could be like $3,000 and
then you have someone in Basic Economy which is the lowest
price but they have to wait and watch every other passenger
aboard the plane. Airlines have been very good about dividing up
the cabin into smaller and smaller classes that you're
always kind of like looking for a little bit more comfort.
For Delta Airlines after delta one and first class customers
comes diamond medallion members, Delta premium select, and
comfort plus all in the front of the plane. Then there's sky
priority followed by the main cabin groups that board based on
fare. Then finally, Basic Economy passengers board last.
Delta tells us the company's process takes about 25 minutes
on average. Alaska Airlines also boards first class and those
with status first, but then Group D consists of those seated
behind the wing and Group E includes passengers in front of
the wing. Then the final group F is those who purchased a saver
fare. While Alaska wouldn't tell us how long exactly this process
takes, the airline begins boarding 40 minutes before
departure.
Everyone from full service airlines to budget airlines
think of spirit and frontier are trying to monetize boarding
because it is such a painful process. What they're trying to
do is get customers to pay up to board a little bit earlier than
some of the other passengers.
But that doesn't exactly lead to more efficient boarding. For
Southwest, customers can pay up by purchasing a business select
fare, early bird check in or upgraded boarding. In 2022
Southwest passenger ancillary sold separately revenue which
includes revenue from early bird check in upgraded boarding and
in flight purchases was $735 million. More than 3% higher
than pre pandemic numbers. Southwest wouldn't share how
much of that revenue is specific to early bird check in and
upgraded boarding. However, on a July 2023 earnings call
southwest Chief Commercial Officer Ryan Green said the
company generates hundreds of millions of dollars annually
from boarding products.
Customers value their boarding priority. That's why airlines
are doing groups where they're boarding you know their most
elite customers and their first class customers earlier.
While airlines might never be at the point where they will turn
down someone paying more money to board first, that doesn't
mean other ways to speed up the process are out of the question.
Our innovation team and our airport and our inflight teams
have been prototyping new solutions to help speed up the
turn improve communication and empower our employees to provide
the service that he wants to give to our customers.
Take these pillars for example, most Southwest gates have metal
pillars that show you where to line up when your boarding group
is called. But as groups get called and people start moving,
it can be difficult to tell when it's your turn. Remember, that's
a problem I had on my way to Atlanta?
It's a loud environment and an airport lots of overhead
announcements. So we bought in new displays and ways to
visually describe to customers what's next.
The screens change too so that even if you're several gates
away grabbing a snack, you can just look down the line and see
what color the screen is at your gate.
Blue indicates to customers that everything's on time no need to
rush yellow that indicates to customers that boarding is
beginning. A lot
of times when we come into the airport we have our earphones on
we have other things going on. And so just having those visual
cues, it gives you an idea when it's your turn to board, you
don't necessarily have to be listening to everything that's
going on in the airport.
Lack of communication or the time it takes to communicate,
are other factors that can slow the process down. So Southwest
is using these iPads to ideally nip those obstacles in the bud.
And so when the team down on the aircraft is ready to board, I
can notify them and send a notification to the crew.
If they did not have the innovation testing going on,
they would have to physically go down the jet bridge and speak to
the in flight crew. And my favorite part...
music in the jet bridge.
There's studies out there that show music at certain beats per
minute help increase the pace of people walking. So disco, EDM
it gets people going? Any music
helps. That ambiance as long as it has hits those beats per
minute targets are boarding and especially in our C group
boarding is up 18% In terms of how fast we're able to get
customers through and onto the aircraft. The goal
is to chop two minutes off of the company's turn time. And
based on the data thus far, Southwest is confident that will
happen.
Having extra minutes at our scale with coming up on like 800
aircraft, the math adds up really quickly. A plane
that sitting around waiting for passengers to board isn't making
any money. In fact, delayed planes are estimated to cost
about $33 billion each year.
Delays tend to cascade let's say a plane that gets off the gate
late from Newark arrives late in Denver, that plane has to go
somewhere else.
Like my flight to Atlanta that if you remember started boarding
about 10 minutes late because passengers were still getting
off the plane from the previous flight. It is now 11am the
flight was supposed to take off at 1045. And we are still on the
ground. We ended up taking off about 30 minutes late.
It could also mean that some of those passengers are miss
connecting. That's another cost for airlines to really
accommodate those customers. And if it's a chronic problem where
planes are leaving late all the time, that could kind of ripple
out to the entire network.
Southwest has been testing these concepts since the end of 2022
with about five different iterations. The company is
analyzing the results and you might see one of these
improvements the next time you're in the airport. After
checking out southwest prototypes in Atlanta, it was
finally time to head back to New York. Especially after my
original flight was canceled and my new flight was delayed, I for
one am certainly hoping I start to see a faster boarding method.
I'm hot, I'm sweaty - it's taking a long time.
The more than we're able to get aircraft turned on time and in
it when it's on the ground allows us to fly more reliably
for our customers as well as it allows us to fly our aircraft
more times in a day to help keep our costs low and that Southwest
efficiency - that's kind of been a cornerstone for us.