Passengers make their way through the terminal as they travel ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday at Washington Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia, on Nov. 22, 2023.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
In air travel, minutes matter.
A number of moments may very well be the difference between making and missing a connection for passengers — and will avoid delays that ripple across the schedule for airlines. Saved time could even result in big savings for carriers as they scramble to get a handle on costs.
Major airlines are rolling out strategies that executives say could translate to lower costs and more efficient operations, even when the time savings on paper look negligible.
A few of these tools will probably be put to the test during what’s expected to be a busy holiday season, a 12 months after a meltdown that stranded hundreds of passengers at the tip of 2022. Lots of the improvements are being made behind the scenes.
American Airlines last 12 months began using latest technology to assign flight gates at Dallas/Fort Value International Airport, the world’s second-busiest airport and American’s biggest hub, where it operates out of 135 regional and mainline gates.
The brand new procedures, replacing a near-manual hours-long process, allowed the airline to avoid lots of its planes crossing from the east side to the west side of the sprawling airport, saving a mean of two minutes of taxi time per flight, adding as much as about 11 hours saved a day, American said.
The technology helped reduce taxi time by 20% and halved gate changes and conflicts, in response to the carrier.
“It took the nightly means of gating the airline from 4 hours to about 10 minutes,” said American COO David Seymour.
The so-called Smart Gating program has been expanded to Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Miami International Airport, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and most recently, in May, Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, Seymour said, adding that the airline is considering using the technology in Phoenix as well.
The gating technology in other airports goals to avoid gate congestion that might delay flights from departing or parking upon arrival.
“For those who attempt to do late-minute gate changes as planes arrive … you may get out of sync along with your caterers and fuelers,” Seymour said, adding that the tools American built are tailored for every airport’s issues.
In the primary eight months of the 12 months, 76.4% of American’s flights arrived inside quarter-hour of their scheduled arrival times, which the Transportation Department considers on time. That performance ranks American third amongst major U.S. carriers for on-time arrivals, an improvement from fifth place throughout the same time period last 12 months.
Short taxi times and other improvements may also help airlines save fuel, certainly one of airlines’ biggest costs. American said its latest gating program saves it 1.4 million gallons of fuel a 12 months, equal to about $4 million based on fuel prices at major U.S. airports this month.
Faster boarding
American is not alone in trying to shave off a number of minutes.
United Airlines last month launched a latest boarding procedure for economy class, accommodating window-seat passengers first followed by the center after which the aisle. United told staff the changes could put it aside as much as two minutes per flight.
Southwest Airlines has also experimented this 12 months with ways to expedite boarding, trying every little thing from higher signage to music on the jet bridge to maintain travelers moving. For years, Delta Air Lines flight attendants and gate agents have used digital messages during boarding, to send alerts for issues akin to full overhead bins.
Discount carrier Frontier Airlines is aiming to hurry up boarding and deplaning through pathways outside jet bridges. The corporate has began using stairs directly onto and off the plane, benefiting from a second door on the carrier’s Airbus jets.
“If you should board an airplane faster, use two [gates] as a substitute of 1,” CEO Barry Biffle said.
The Denver-based airline is in talks with several airports to extend that style of boarding, with no traditional jet bridge. Biffle estimated that the carrier could have a 3rd of its flights using stairways for boarding and deplaning in about two years.
Biffle said that might save as much as 10 minutes off the turn time, the period of time it takes for a plane to park, deplane, reload and depart.
Robert Mann, who has worked at several airlines and is president of aviation consulting firm RW Mann & Co., said how airlines use the time savings will probably be key. Baking it back into the schedule could mean airlines would not must block off as much time for a flight, he said.
“While you actually plan shorter flight times, you’ve gotten more airplanes available,” he said.
An American Airlines spokesman said that because the airline becomes more efficient, in future schedules, it could allot less time for every flight, increasing the airline’s ability so as to add more flights.
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