Boarding in transport

Boarding is the entry of passengers onto a vehicle, usually in public transportation. Boarding starts with entering the vehicle and ends with the seating of each passenger and closure of the doors. The term is used in road, water and air transport (for example, passengers board a coach).

Boarding is the passenger air transport, the phase between the call to the passengers, to the boarding gate to go from which the for the booked flight standing by aircraft is reached, and the date on which the aircraft doors are locked. From this point on is board accountability from the ramp agent of the airport company (again) on the flight captain.

The time at which the passengers must arrive at the gate at the latest, the so-called last boarding time, is usually entered on the issued boarding pass. The respective aircraft can be reached from the gate either directly via a passenger boarding bridge or as busboarding with an apron bus or – at small airports – as walkboarding on foot via the airport apron.

Aviation
At commercial airports, a boarding call on the public announcement system asks travelers to proceed to the departure gate and board the aircraft. This can begin any time from an hour to thirty minutes before departure (depending on the size of the plane and number of passengers). For boarding an aircraft, airstairs or jetways are used. Small aircraft may carry their own stairs.

Airlines control the access to the aircraft by checking passengers’ boarding passes and matching them with the list of passengers and their identification cards. Many airlines use the IATA standard Bar Coded Boarding Passes (BCBP) to automate this process. A 2D bar code is scanned and the data are sent to the airline’s system to look up the list of passengers. If the passenger is entitled to board, a positive message is sent back to the airline agent.

Boarding in air travel is supervised by ground personnel. The pilot is responsible for the boarding as soon as the doors are closed because by law the aircraft is then “in flight”.

After boarding, the taxiing and takeoff will follow in most cases.

Date of boarding
The date of arrival is determined in advance a few hours prior to the departure date of the flight.

The boarding must begin sufficiently before departure, in order not to delay the departure of the flight. At the same time, there is no longer a lot of preparation for the departure of the plane so as not to force the passengers to spend a long time before taking off. Therefore, the boarding begins when it is ready to receive passengers – when it has already been cleared and arranged after the departure of the passengers of the previous flight – and the preparations for the departure of the flight have reached an advanced stage. As the boarding goes on, other preparations for the flight can be completed, such as loading food onto the plane, filling its tanks with fuel, and loading passenger baggage into its main cargo bay.

Usually, the boarding begins half an hour to an hour before the departure date of the flight, depending on the size of the plane, the number of passengers and the distance from the terminal (if the passengers are to be taken longer). The boarding time was given to the passengers at the end of the inspection process, upon the delivery of the boarding pass to them. Sometimes postponed deadline given to passengers and that when there are delays that require the postponement of a flight away (for example – weather bad).

The boarding process
The boarding process begins when the passengers pass through the boarding gate. They make their way to the plane via a boarding bridge, bus or mobile lounge, or even on foot (in small airports). If passengers reach the plane by bus or by foot, the passengers ascend the stairs (stairs installed or mobile stairs). They enter the plane, store their hand baggage in the luggage compartment designated for it in the passenger compartment and sit in the places assigned to them during the flight inspection process.

The boarding process is managed at the boarding gate by the ground crew of the airline operating the flight. When the boarding time is reached, passengers are first called by the terminal system at the terminal to reach the exit gate. The staff at the gate invite the passengers who have already arrived to pass through it in a certain order (see below). They identify the passengers according to the boarding passes they were given during the inspection. Usually identification is done by automated devices, which identify the passenger information on the card (usually according to the barcode printed on it), compare it to the list of approved passengers on computersThe flight company confirms its passage through the gate. This process also allows the ground crew and the crew of the aircraft to check towards the end of boarding time if all the passengers who arrived at the terminal pass through the gate. If everyone did not register, late arrivals could be called on the terminal’s loudspeaker system to quickly get to the boarding gate.

When entering the plane, the passengers are welcomed by the flight attendants, who make sure that the passengers have arrived on the right flight and are directing them to the designated places.

People who are wheelchair-bound are loaded into airplanes by a wheelchair.

The boarding process ends when the doors are closed. Usually they are closed when the plane is ready to leave its parking position, drive to the flight route and take off.

Order boarding
Determining the order of immigration of the passengers to the plane takes into account various considerations:

Efficiency – the need for as fast a rise as possible of passengers to the plane, so as not to cause them discomfort and delay the departure of the flight. The efficiency of boarding is limited due to various factors:
The entrances to the plane are few – usually one or two only
The passages on the plane are narrow and the free space where passengers can stand on their way to their seats is limited
Passage through the aisles is limited by passengers who stand on them during boarding to load their hand luggage into the luggage compartment above the seats
The phenomenon of an increase in the volume of passengers’ luggage, resulting from the imposition of fees by the airlines on excess baggage weight
Other considerations of the airline – for example, the desire to encourage passengers to purchase more expensive seats (which they can reach faster) or the possibility of allowing family members or friends to board the plane together. At times, a flight company offers passengers the right to board a plane at an additional cost.
There are different options for boarding the passengers. for example:

According to the seating order of the passengers:
From the last row to the first row
Sitting in window seats, behind them in the middle seats and finally sitting in the seats by the aisle
By groups of row dwellers or by compartment sections
A combination of the above options
Random order (Passengers pass through the gate and board the plane in accordance with their wishes).
Another method proposed (flying carpet) is that the passengers will be organized according to rows of seats in the waiting area, before the passage at the boarding gate.

First-class passengers and the business department are usually called first to board. Sometimes, passengers with disabilities are called on to board, and they travel with small children.

Increase to other vehicles
The entrance to travel to other vehicles is usually simpler. Thus, the bus and train come directly from the platform (or from a station on the street), without the need to transport them. The train has more openings and the passengers put their own baggage on it. The boarding of a passenger ship is more complex and more like boarding.

Boarding patterns and efficiency
Most North American airlines have assigned seating, but Southwest Airlines does not. Southwest boards passengers in A, B, and C groups depending on their ticket purchase date. Across North American airlines, it is standard to allow early boarding for passengers with mobility impairments, those with small children, and first class passengers. All airlines allow passengers in premium cabins or with elite status to board earlier, with some offering it to coach customers for a fee.

Several boarding patterns by seating location are possible:

Back-to-front by row
Outside-in by column (window, middle, aisle)
Block boarding (outside-in within a zone, with zones ordered back-to-front)
Reverse pyramid (combines back-to-front with outside-in)
Rotating zone (alternating back-to-front and front-to-back segments)
Random
Efficiency considerations to minimize overall boarding time include:

Whether passengers have to wait to pass other passengers in the aisle
Whether passengers have to cross already-seated passengers in aisle and middle seats
How many people can be storing luggage and taking their seats at the same time
Competing considerations include:

Encouraging specific behaviors (paying more, self-service, checking in earlier, buying earlier)
Whether families and friends can board together
Passenger stress with regard to who gets what seat and competition for overhead bin space
Computer simulations indicate that the outside-in and reverse-pyramid patterns should be fastest, followed by block and random, followed by back-to-front and rotating zone. American Airlines found in a two-year study that randomized boarding was faster than outside-in. Despite this, most North American airlines use the back-to-front pattern.

Another proposed method to speed boarding is to have passengers sort themselves by row and seat while still standing in the waiting area.

Typical procedure
The waiting room at the corresponding gate in the airport is filled, the last passengers pass through the person and hand luggage control which precedes the waiting room. By radio, the ground staff waiting at the gate counter of the airport or the corresponding airline receives the confirmation of the u. a. airport company ramp agent responsible for boarding, that they are now ready to board passengers on board (“ready for boarding”). A loudspeaker announcement tells the airport staff that the gate is now open for boarding for the respective flight – the load boarding time has begun. In addition, a message appears on the scoreboardof the airport – often in the form of two green, mutually flashing lights. Missing passengers are called with the “Final Boarding Call” (call through the public address system) last time to board the plane.

For larger machines, after this announcement, the owners of certain boarding passes are first asked to enter. These are mostly passengers who have their seats in the back of the cabin but also families with children are allowed on board first. For very large aircraft, it calls for rows of seats (from back to front, eg 70-45) to speed up the climb. Then the passengers are asked for the middle seats and finally the passengers for the front rows of seats to board. The ground staff at the gate counter controls the completeness of the passengers in the comparison between the boarding passes presented by the passengers and the passenger list. In this context, for some airlines, both domestic and as well as on foreign flights, the presentation of the identity card or passport as further identification of the legitimate passenger authorized entry (entry control). Today, the printed or electronic boarding passes are usually usingScanned scanner. The passengers thus retain the complete boarding pass. Often this must be shown on entering the aircraft – especially when the entrance from the airport apron via a gangway – shortly the welcome crew.

If within a certain time individual passengers have not appeared at the gate, the boarding for the corresponding flight is called again. If, after this call, not all passengers included in the passenger list have appeared within a certain period of time, only these missing passengers will be called by name (Final Call). There is no call in so-called “silent airports” (eg at Vienna-Schwechat airport).

Especially in cases of doubt, members of the cabin crew quickly determine the exact number of passengers on board. If no passengers can be expected at the gate after the final call, this is communicated in the words “boarding completed” between the ramp agent, flight captain, purser and the ground crew at the gate.

With the captain’s request directed to the cabin crew to lock the aircraft doors, boarding is deemed to be officially over. The gate will be closed until the next boarding, the doors of the aircraft will be locked (in the plane the last preparations for the take-off begin, the flight-boards “departure” at the airport show the flight as “started” from this moment).

The term ” pre-boarding” refers to the entry of some privileged passengers (eg large families, persons with reduced mobility and VIPs) before the actual boarding. Deboarding is the reverse procedure.

Water transport
In water transport a boarding onto a watercraft can be done while it is located in harbour or at sea.

Source from Wikipedia