Passengers pass through the terminal ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday at Washington Dulles International Airport on November 22, 2023 in Dulles, Virginia.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
Minutes count when it comes to air travel.
A small amount of time can mean the difference between a passenger making a connection or not, and an airline potentially avoiding delays that ripple throughout the schedule. The time savings could even translate into significant savings for carriers struggling to keep costs under control.
Major airlines are rolling out strategies that executives say could lead to lower costs and more efficient operations, even if the time savings seem small on paper.
Some of these tools will be tested during the holiday season, which is expected to be a busy season in late 2022, a year after the meltdown that left thousands of passengers stranded. Many of the improvements are happening behind the scenes.
american airlines Last year, the company began using new technology to operate 135 regional and mainline gates at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, the world’s second-busiest airport and America’s largest hub.
The new procedure, which replaced a nearly manual, multi-hour process, allowed the company to avoid having many aircraft cross from the east side to the west side of the vast airport, saving an average of two minutes of taxi time per flight. American says it can save up to 11 hours per day.
The airline says the technology has cut taxi times by 20% and cut gate changes and congestion in half.
“The process of closing airline gates each night took anywhere from four hours to about 10 minutes,” said David Seymour, America’s chief operating officer.
The so-called smart gating program was expanded to Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Miami International Airport, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, and most recently in May to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, Seymour said, adding that the company He added that he is considering using the program. Phoenix technology is no different.
Other airport gate technologies are aimed at avoiding gate congestion that can delay flight departures and parking upon arrival.
“If you try to change gates right before the plane arrives, you can get out of sync with the caterers and refueling companies,” Seymour said, adding that the tools American Airlines built are tailored to each airport’s problems. He added that it has been done.
In the first eight months of this year, 76.4% of American Airlines flights arrived within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival time. This is what the Department of Transport considers to be on time.Its performance ranks among American The third Among major U.S. airlines, we ranked first in on-time performance, an improvement from fifth place at the same time last year.
Reducing taxi times and other improvements help save fuel, one of the biggest costs for airlines. American Airlines said its new gate program will save 1.4 million gallons of fuel annually, which equates to about $4 million based on this month’s fuel prices at major U.S. airports.
Faster boarding
American Airlines isn’t the only airline looking to shave minutes off their flights.
united airlines Last month, the airline launched a new boarding process in economy class, first for window seat passengers, then for middle seat passengers, then for aisle seat passengers. United Airlines told staff that the change could save up to two minutes per flight.
southwest airlines has been experimenting with ways to speed up boarding this year, trying everything from better signage to music on the jet bridge to avoid disrupting passenger movement. For many years, delta airlines Flight attendants and gate agents are using digital messages during boarding to send alerts about issues such as when the overhead bins are full.
discount carrier frontier airlines aims to speed up boarding and alighting on the outer walkways of jet bridges. The airline has started using a second door on its Airbus planes to provide stairs that allow passengers to enter and exit the plane directly.
“If you want to get on the plane quickly, use two tickets.” [gates] instead of one,” CEO Barry Biffle said.
The Denver-based airline is in talks with multiple airports to increase this type of boarding without using traditional jet bridges. Biffle estimated that a third of the company’s flights could use stairs for boarding and exit within about two years.
Biffle said this could reduce turn time, the time it takes for a plane to park, disembark, reload and depart, by up to 10 minutes.
The key is how airlines use the time saved, said Robert Mann, who has worked for several airlines and is president of aviation consulting firm RW Mann & Company. By building this back into schedules, airlines may not need to set aside as much time for flights, he said.
“If you actually plan shorter flight times, you get more planes available,” he said.
An American Airlines spokesperson said that as the airline becomes more efficient, future schedules may allocate less time to each flight and increase its ability to add flights.
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