How many times have you boarded a plane with a seat near the rear of the aircraft and waited for a front passenger who is blocking the aisle trying finding their seat and place their bags? While the airlines are a little better by assigning group numbers, many people ignore their number and board out of order. Why not have everyone (except first class of course) line-up and board the plane according to their seat assignment? The airline gates could have the seat numbers on the floor and people could take their place at their leisure. This would avoid the current "Cattle" behavior seen at all gates while boarding. This would also allow the airline to identify possible empty seats earlier. What about people with a late connecting flight? They would be boarded at the end, sequentially. This could save at least ten minutes of boarding time on crowded flights. Wouldn't you like to reduce your time on a plane by ten minutes?
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This is a great idea I once heard from a friend of mine so you two must be on the same wavelength. Though in his idea you had numbered chairs.
Numbers on the floor or chairs would be extremely difficult to implement, since any given gate could host dozens of differently sized and configured airplanes.
However, each passenger could be given a local pager at check-in, with their boarding card. When it is their turn to board, based on seat number, a computer pages them and they come forward to the boarding desk. The gate agent collects the pager and returns it to the check-in area for the next flight.
This relies on existing technology - for example, in Heathrow Airport's Terminal 4, there is a cafe next to Gate 9 that gives you a pager when you order a latte, and when your beverage is ready you get beeped. If they can do it for coffee, they can do it for the passengers at the gate 10 feet away!
The problem is that people block the aisle while putting their stuff in overhead lockers. Assuming we can't fix their selfish attitude, the only approach is to board from rear of aircraft forwards.
How could the airline enforce that? Three ideas: program their boarding card reader to accept only cards in rows called for boarding ; colour code boarding cards by seat row group, to make it obvious if someone tries to cheat ; similarly, overprint cards with seat row number in really big characters.
One airline I used recently boarded the seats in the rear first. It made it much easier as the people stowing their overhead carryons weren't in the aisle to block those coming in behind them.
Just tweak one thing and you can make improvements. Who wrote the rule that the front seats have to board first?
I am totally against the idea as being very difficult to implement (see other comments already posted). But also, why do we want to rush on (and, indeed off) airplanes like cows in a stampede? What is more comfortable: standing and waiting in line in the boarding hall or standing and waiting in line on board of the plane. No difference, as far as I care.
What about boarding the window seats first? That would eliminate the constant getting up and moving into the aisle to hinder other passengers to get by. Board by sections and by seat location.
The problem is that it is not always true that back-to-frontboarding as suggested is good, even if everyone obeysthe airline's instructions. In fact according to some simulations and also according to theory it is rather detrimental. Airplane boarding as a process may be modeled by 2 dimensional space-time geometry, the same type of geometry which models Einstein's relativity theory in 4 dimensions.when a certain congestion parameter whose realistic value is about 2.5 goes over 1, back to front policies cease to be effective. Basically back to front policies assume that people are very thin which is not always the case. Windows first is a good idea, it also lowers the congestion parameter, it is practiced by some airlines.
this is in fact a problem already tackled by the airline industry; the process has been severely revamped for American Airlines customers, now they board passengers by "groups"; and they are arrenged in the following manner:
back of the plane passengers and windows (first)
center seats and in the case of big planes; middle seats (the ones that dont have windows) (second)
aisle seats (last).
This schema follows from a mathematical model which defines plane boarding much like the way a water bottle is filled when under a high-pressure gush of water; that is, water will quickly climb up the walls of the container and fill the bottom in the initial stages of the gush. In theory, this should fill planes faster, it isnt enforced when getting off of the plane however.
However, first class/business class passengers who have paid their premiums are still allowed to get in and out of the plane as they see fit and people will block the passageway with overhead-loading luggage, so the model isnt perfect.
IMHO; arrive early, bring something to play with (ipod, puzzle magazine, laptop, etc.), take a deep breath and wait until everybody is on the plane, then enter last. Flights are generally hours of same-chair seating anyways.
There is an easy and totally free way to solve this people, JUST BE PATIENT. Why would an airline company or airport spend that kind of money? Just keep your pants on and be patient, you will be able to sit down.
Like Disney Land, you get seated before in the lounge module and see commercials etc. They keep you entertained. When the arriving flight lands, the arriving passenger container is out and the new one is loaded in modules. We need assembly line.