Faster aircraft boarding enabled by infrastructural changes

Aircraft boarding is a process mainly impacted by the boarding sequence, passenger behaviour and the amount of hand luggage. Whereas these aspects are already addressed in scientific research and operational improvements, the influence of infrastructural changes are only focused upon in the context of future aircraft design. The innovative Side-Slip Seat technology holds the potential for sustainably improving the boarding time by providing a wide aisle during the boarding progress. A comprehensive, validated simulation environment is used to analyse the benefits of this technology and an adapted boarding strategy is identified using evolutionary algorithms. Considering the operational reality of the air transportation domain (e.g. seat load), the individual passenger behaviour (e.g. conformance to procedures), and operational deviations (e.g. delay), the Side-Slip Seat could fasten aircraft boarding by both 20% shorter average boarding time and a more stable boarding progress (smaller standard deviation).