RO-RO Aeroplane parking

On flights that don’t have any seat allocation, boarding is done in check-in order. Thus the first thirty passengers to check-in get to get on first, the next thirty next etc… For the airlines this is a good idea since it encourages people to check-in early to assure themselves a “good” seat, or for groups of friends to sit together. This then reduces the risk of having long queues checking-in just before the gate closes delaying the flight.

However the plan falls apart during boarding because people want to sit as near as possible to the front of the plane so they can get off first. All those eager types are dicking around in the aisle stowing hand baggage while the rest of us wait to get past.

This problem could be solved at a stroke by parking the aeroplane backwards at the end of the outbound leg of the flight. On a flight from say Gatwick to Geneva, the plane arriving at Geneva would be reversed onto the stand and the airbridge brought up to the rear door. On its return to Gatwick, the plane would go to the stand head first.

This would encourage people to go to the farther end of the plane on boarding in order to be early off, allowing more people on at a time and speeding up the plane’s turn around time.