Ask any programmer and efficiency is core to their world. When it comes to how you are going to code something (less code the better) or how you structure your SQL query (less joins the better) or even when it comes to the design of the app (less clicks the better) it is a constant thought running into your head.
Last week Mike and I traveled to DC to give a presentation on some kick ass new things we are working on. Typically I fly a few times each month (I love transportation!) but loading and unloading of a plane is just painful for me to watch as a programmer.
The goal of course for airlines is to have all their planes in the air all the time. If they are on the ground then they are not making any money. Because of this they try to optimize how their time is spent on the ground. However the actual loading of passengers into a plane takes longer then fueling or loading the luggage onto the plane.
This is the same in our industry. It's hard to get stoked about knocking off 1ms on a query because non iframed ads take 18 seconds to load into the page or because the page has 5megs of images. I'm sure this happens in the airline industry as well. Why bother improving the efficiency of loading fuel or bags or food into a plane when you know you are going to wait for the people to load.
Most airlines, like the RIAA, seem to stay in business despite themselves but that is an entirely different post. However they all seem to take some steps in order to optimize load times of passengers. Southwest doesn't do assigned seating. When flying out of LA on JetBlue they loaded from the back and front doors of the plane at the same time which seemed to really decrease load time but that setup is not available in many airports. United and pretty much everyone else gives you a "Zone Number" and you board when your zone is called.
It's that last one that really is bothersome. From my personal experience it looks like they load everyone with a window seat first then middle then aisle row last. This seems to make common sense...you don't want to sit everyone in the aisle first so that people with window seats have to jump over them to get in. However anyone who has been on a plane knows that the 2 seconds to squeeze by someone is nothing compared to the 30 seconds it takes to store your luggage in the overhead compartments.
That seems to be the bottleneck that no one is addressing. If you seat someone in the first row in a window seat but they have to spend 30 seconds putting their bag above them no one else can load in at the same time. So everyone waits in line.
The ideal solution (from an efficiency standpoint) would be to remove over head carry ons. This would mean less time getting through security and less time loading because unless it fits under the seat in front of you it is going to be checked.
Sure that puts more load on the baggage workers but that system can be optimized because you have trained people using it (not depending on your customers to find an efficient route).
I doubt many airlines would be bold enough to actually do that but don't we want to see what we can get the baggage and fuel loaders times down to?
Last week Mike and I traveled to DC to give a presentation on some kick ass new things we are working on. Typically I fly a few times each month (I love transportation!) but loading and unloading of a plane is just painful for me to watch as a programmer.
The goal of course for airlines is to have all their planes in the air all the time. If they are on the ground then they are not making any money. Because of this they try to optimize how their time is spent on the ground. However the actual loading of passengers into a plane takes longer then fueling or loading the luggage onto the plane.
This is the same in our industry. It's hard to get stoked about knocking off 1ms on a query because non iframed ads take 18 seconds to load into the page or because the page has 5megs of images. I'm sure this happens in the airline industry as well. Why bother improving the efficiency of loading fuel or bags or food into a plane when you know you are going to wait for the people to load.
Most airlines, like the RIAA, seem to stay in business despite themselves but that is an entirely different post. However they all seem to take some steps in order to optimize load times of passengers. Southwest doesn't do assigned seating. When flying out of LA on JetBlue they loaded from the back and front doors of the plane at the same time which seemed to really decrease load time but that setup is not available in many airports. United and pretty much everyone else gives you a "Zone Number" and you board when your zone is called.
It's that last one that really is bothersome. From my personal experience it looks like they load everyone with a window seat first then middle then aisle row last. This seems to make common sense...you don't want to sit everyone in the aisle first so that people with window seats have to jump over them to get in. However anyone who has been on a plane knows that the 2 seconds to squeeze by someone is nothing compared to the 30 seconds it takes to store your luggage in the overhead compartments.
That seems to be the bottleneck that no one is addressing. If you seat someone in the first row in a window seat but they have to spend 30 seconds putting their bag above them no one else can load in at the same time. So everyone waits in line.
The ideal solution (from an efficiency standpoint) would be to remove over head carry ons. This would mean less time getting through security and less time loading because unless it fits under the seat in front of you it is going to be checked.
Sure that puts more load on the baggage workers but that system can be optimized because you have trained people using it (not depending on your customers to find an efficient route).
I doubt many airlines would be bold enough to actually do that but don't we want to see what we can get the baggage and fuel loaders times down to?
