People choose to travel by air to save man’s most valuable asset; time. But eventually, all you end up doing is waiting. Waiting to collect your boarding pass, waiting for security check. And after all this, reaching your seat once you have boarded takes another decade owing to the disarray and snail-like movement of people. So here are four crazy techniques that can facilitate faster boarding by minimising chaos and maximising ease.1. Detachable passenger cabinsBoeing says cutting an airplane’s “turn-time”—its time on the ground—by 10 minutes improves utilisation level 8.1 percent. That has got Airbus to put their thinking caps on and find ways to pace up the boarding process with an idea to turn aircraft cabins into what can be regarded as shipping containers. Relax, it's not as morbid as what you're thinking This technique, known as “aircraft pod concept” entails that passengers could be pre-seated in cabin pods before the plane actually arrives. The entire cabin or pod can then be lowered and attached to the plane. Once the plane lands, the pod can be detached while the next set of passengers arrive in a fully loaded cabin. Airbus believes that this technique would help in saving time and instead of processing tickets right before boarding.Although at risk of, well, a spine-chilling drop to the earth if a cabin locking mechanism fails, passengers will at least no longer have to juggle to their seats inside the plane that's far from ready for take-off, and they can board the plane only when it's completely ready.

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Airbus has a new idea for getting people into planes faster 

2. Side-Slip seatsBoarding a plane can be a nasty affair because of people jamming the aisles as they stow their luggage in the overhead locker. With no room to pass, that's when delays and frustration begins. The idea by Molon Labe designs comes as an ideal solution to this.  He proposed a technique that sees the aisle seats slide over the middle seat to widen the gangway between the rows from an average 19 inches to a roomy 43 inches. Once the passengers are ready to sit, the seats are locked back into place. This design claims to cut the boarding time to half, resulting in faster airport turnarounds so airlines could fly an extra two hours each day. Also, it will reduce fuel costs, tireless hours waiting for the plane to be ready and not to mention, the obvious reduction in passengers’ stress. Check out the video below to see how it works. 

 

3. Fermilab Astrophysicist's Mathematical methodSimply by letting passengers board at seemingly random could actually be faster than boarding in the strict blocks we're all accustomed to. Amazingly, Dr. Jason Steffen, an astrophysicist at Fermilab came up with a method that could cut airplane boarding time drastically. First, passengers with window seats on alternate rows (1, 3, 5, etc.) on one side of the plane boards first. Then the same is done on the other side of the plane. Then the middle seats in alternating rows boards on the first side of the plane followed by the other side. The same is to be done for the aisle seats. Then, do it all again for the even-numbered rows. It's simple to follow (if you are not too confused already). But it is very efficient as alternating rows provide more room for easy movement and carefully observing seat position reduces the logjam from aisle-seaters having to stand up time after time.  Watch the video below to get a better idea of Stephen’s Choreographed airplane boarding. 

 

4. A “strict” seating plan

 Boarding passengers with window seats first is time efficient

Now this one may not sound as crazy as the others, but the level of discipline and compliance it demands from passengers will make you a little sceptical. According to a team of computer scientists and mathematicians from State University of New York, boarding passengers with window seats first is more efficient than filling the plane from the back, which creates a lot of obstruction. Although this model completely focuses on a seating plan that can be applied irrespective of the size and shape of an aircraft, managing such a strict sequence will add to the crew’s misery. May be military organisations can better align with such high-degree precision.Airlines might want to bring the average boarding time down, but achieving that at the cost of annoying their passengers might not be such a good idea for them.