A New Exit Option--Could It Help Keep Airfares Down?

by Michele Cheplic | More from this Blogger

28 May 2006 06:00 AM

How many times have you had your patience tested when exiting an airplane? Perhaps, you are trying to quickly de-plane in an effort to catch a connecting flight, only to be thwarted by a fellow traveler who wants to regal you with his vacation stories while moving at a snails pace to retrieve his carry-on, get down the aisle and out the door. Sound familiar? If it does, and as a result, you have wished airlines would consider offering another exit option you could be in luck.

In an effort to get passengers on and off their flights faster, several airlines are testing boarding and deplaning from their front and rear doors. AirTran, JetBlue and Southwest Airlines are among the companies hoping it will speed up the boarding process, which is crucial for many low-cost carriers. AirTran is testing the dual door option at Tampa International Airport; JetBlue is trying it at 23 destinations, including one gate at Dulles International Airport. Meanwhile, Southwest is using both doors at gates in Burbank, California and Austin, Texas.

The choice of these sunny locations may seem like common sense, after all, weather factors largely in the success of the dual door boarding and deplaning option. Growing up in Hawaii, where up until the early 1990's Honolulu's inter-island terminal was not equipped with jet-ways, I can attest that running across a tarmac in a driving rain doesn't endear me to this "new" option. In fact, Hawaii's, Kailua-Kona airport is still not equipped with jet-ways. So, rain or shine, you board and de-plane through the aircraft's front and rear doors. Does it speed up the boarding and exiting process? Absolutely, especially when it is pouring and you have an entire plane full of people dashing to and from the terminal.

Besides enduring Mother Nature's wrath, using an aircraft's rear door can present some other challenges... not the least of which is finding a movable staircase to get the passengers on and off the aircraft. (Considering it's the airports, not the airlines, that pay for the staircases.) Once that is accomplished passengers have to negotiate 15 to 18 stairs and walk across the tarmac to the gate. Try accomplishing this feat with three young children. Or in my 90-year-old grandmother's case, try scaling 18 narrow stairs without the assistance of a cane in a windstorm. I'd be curious to see how the airlines factor in a variable like my grandmother in their calculations. I'd be more curious to see if my grandmother would fly without the assistance of a jet-way.

What potential inconveniences are you willing to endure to keep airfares down?

Learn more about Michele Cheplic

Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism.

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