does this take into consideration carry on baggage

Boarding Aircraft
My personal observation is that the major difficuly is not getting bums in seats, but getting gear in Bins!
People who have physical difficulty in getting their bags stowed overhead often block the aisles for a considerable length of time. as do those who stow them and subsequently decide to add their overcoats, or get their paperback, bottled water, etc., out of the bags after they are first seated.
The low-cost, short-haul flights do not present the same problem, since many of the passengers are regular flyers, are organised, do not need to equip themselves for a 3 or 6 hour flight, and in many cases travel very light.
It seems different strategies need to be employed according to the nature of the flight, and the demographics of its passengers. I would also agree that the prior knowledge of one's seat gives a small margin of "security" to the infrequent flyer which cannot be underestimated.
Perhaps filling up from the rear, along one side, or in the case of a 2-aisle plane, the outer rows, with cabin staff scattered in the temporarily "empty" seats to assist in stowing of bags, and reserving locker space for those "empty" seat passengers might be a good first step.
Worth pursuing, as a cabin full of passengers upset before they are airborne is a recipe for a miserable flight.

Living above a busy road junction I can confirm this. Whenever the traffic lights fail, drivers are much more considerate and drive more carefully. But it's hell for the pedestrians trying to cross!

What a terrible idea! How would we know what seat to set in? No traffic control devices, absurd! How would we know when to stop, or go? To allow people to use common sense, a very dangerous idea indeed! For our on good, we must be controlled, we must be told what to do, and when to do it!

Why do passengers take so long to board aircraft?
1. Because people carry more handluggage than they can manage personally, the aisles on aircraft are too narrow, because the airports and airlines allow excess baggage in dutyfree shop bags because extra seatrows have been added beyond the manufacturers' intent

Why does chaos theory result in faster loading times ?
Because physics sees collisions as desirable ways of conveying information but we humans prefer to avoid contact. Being polite slows things down. If you let people fight their way on, and the strongest get the best seats, the weak will accept the seats they can get. Like schoolkids on a bus, only the fit will survive. But you can avoid the fat smelly people.

Why do we have pavement kerbs?
1. drainage. It rains. The gutter is by the kerb.
2. To stop moving cars from running into pedestrians and parking on pavements.

We all know why we need traffic lights, even if they do slow traffic down. It's to give the pedestrians a chance.

In my experience most delays are caused by passengers trying to get large amounts of luggage into the overhead lockers. Perhaps a reduction of the amount taken, or more enforcement of the actual rules, would also help?

Looks like BA could do with a little help from Einstein too before they make their statements. They seem to be confusing random boarding with random seating. The scientists aren't suggesting Easyjet style random seating, passengers would still be assigned a seat but wouldn't have to wait until their row number is called for boarding. Seems to make a lot of sense to me. Although probably going too far suggesting First Class passengers should board with the rest of us normal people!

<RANT>Why do stories about Einstein have to have E=mc2 in the title -- this equation is the special theory of relativity not the general, which is what the Lorenzian geometry thing is all about. E=mc2 has nothing to do with this story -- just lazy journalism.</RANT>
In terms of traffic lights I hope that someone on the obsessed with traffic lights Southampton council, where I used to live, reads this -- their opinion was more lights the better which is completely wrong. Mind you Edinburgh council aren't much better. Also, why don't we have more temporary lights in the UK generally, which are used during peak times for traffic flow, but then go to flashing amber to allow people to proceed when safe during off-peak times. Surely this would help cut emissions as there is a lot caused by idling engines at night waiting at red with noone coming the other way.

OK, I have to ask. As we all know, E=mc2 and the equation quoted in the article refutes this fact. Surely if the wrong equation were used then more people could find seats than there are seats in the plane.

If E is greater than mc2 then the number of people that can be accommodated in the plane will exceed the number of seats.

The Scotsman has really gone downhill since it switched from broadsheet to tabloid format... I wonder why.

i fly once or twice a year to australia and i cant say i have ever noticed an undesirably long delay in getting to my seat.i do fly economy

Comment #4 John

I take it this is tongue in cheek?

Another demonstration that the same mathematical rules underlie the entire universe.

Another case where this should apply is in the free economic market. Governments which insist on regulations as to how much money is invested in windmills, whether pubs may allow customers to smoke, or drink from glass glasses, whether Scottish business decisions should be subject to the dictata of political correctness inspectors (official SLD policy incredible as it seems) & all the rest of the nanny paraphanalia is counterproductive.

But then Adam Smith said that some time ago.

I do a lot of international travel. If the airlines and airport authorities enforced "their own rules" regarding carry-on baggage, boarding would not be a problem. When I worked in Russia many of the internal flights did not allocate seats. To this day I wish I'd had a video camera with me. It was pantomime at it's best!!

Then you'd get people with kids being unable to find seats together because they wouldn't be able to move as quickly as single adults...

Great idea, if you're leaving in a fantasy world.

I started in computers in 1960. One of the problems we tried to solve was the "traffic problem." Apparently forty years later it still hasn't been solved. I drove a taxi in Seattle, WA for a few years and many times broke the law and took all sorts of risks to make sure I got ontoa street with synchronised lights at the exact moment which would allow me to cruise through without stopping. And still had to run the gauntlet of the red light runners.

I have flown all over the Western world and would say that the only solution to the plane boarding problem is to have fewer passengers and wider aisles. but that of course, would reduce the profits of the airlines so is impossible.

Er...why do we need pre-allocated seat numbers?

Going further, we could adopt the system observed in China a few years ago, aboard an ex-BEA Trident.

There seemed to be more passengers aboard than available seats. A truck pulled up at the entrance steps, and about a dozen or so folding seats were passed down the centre isle so that everyone could sit down for the flight. Our railways could learn something from that!!

I am a very frequent traveller.
The delays I have experienced can be minimised by colour coding the boarding cards or by the use of a distinctive coloured sticker at time of check in.The alphabets are not all understandable. The seat numbers create more chaos.
Explaining in detail before the passengers move to the departure gate does reduce chaos.

Low cost carriers are quicker to board for a number of reasons:
1. Boarding through front and rear doors at the same time (though not having the 'air bridge' gangway means you get wet if it's raining).
2. No allocated seats means you tend to take the first one available.
3. Passengers tend to have less carry on baggage.
4. These carriers tend not to oversubscribe their flights.
5. Lower cost means lower passenger expectations, so queueing in the rain and not being guaranteed a seat next to your mates doesn't matter.

On the subject of traffic signals, the "4 way stop" used extensively on crossroards in the US works well. Drivers are more considerate, wait their turn when it's busy and understand the rules of the road (although this works best outside city centres, and better in Minnesota then New York!). It may also work well as a result of there being a lot more traffic police in the US who will stop you for violating the rules. They also have an excellent rule where, when traffic lights fail the "4 way stop" rules apply.

(#2) I agree with Tom; half of the problem is the people who are inept at stowing their accoutrement and consequently block the aisle for a period of time, thus frustrating those still waiting to be seated.
(#4) I sincerely hope this bloke is joking.
(#8) The article may not have anything to do with E=mc2, but it catches the eye, and is the (only) formula most people are familiar with. If it draws people in to read the rest, it's accomplished its purpose, accurate or not.
(#14) Spot on with Adam Smith.
Finally, (#19) also applies.. even understanding the alphabet gives you no leg-up on trying to decipher whatever symbol that airline has decided to use to differentiate aisle vs. window seating. Most of the ones I've ever seen make absolutely no sense; adding to the confusion and delaying the time it takes people to be seated. Color-coding is a great idea.

Alex @ 13: or head up the bass!

Alex @ 13: Relativity is just a theory anyway!

Relativity can be really derived from chaos, try to follow the discussion on my web page superstruny.aspweb.cz

Stop winging,you know there will be delays and people will not change.. Just get over it.

I Travel a lot internationally and have been delayed quite a few times but I have also delayed others it's the nature of the beast if you have hand luggage you must stow it and sometimes it can be a fight to get it into the wee space left by passengers who have boarded earlier, but that's life and I say again Get over it.

As an Intrenational traveler I find that the time is taken up with passengers taking to many pieces of hand luggage and trying to find an over head lockers to put there extra pieces,several times I have found the the overhead locker alloted to me is already taken with luggage from people a few seats infront of me, Not trying to find there seats

"I have flown all over the Western world and would say that the only solution to the plane boarding problem is to have fewer passengers and wider aisles. but that of course, would reduce the profits of the airlines so is impossible."

Well, for a solution they could start by actually figuring out how much it costs to break even, then charge each passenger just a tad more (a profit). Ironically, every discount airline operates at a loss (why else do you think they go bankrupt? or need subsidizing by the govt?) to compete, which forces even the bigger airlines to follow suit. So you'd pay more per ticket. Fewer seats = a good amount more than that.

What happens? You find fewer people wanting to fly short routes because driving would be cheaper in many cases, and for those choosing to still fly would be paying a fair amount so they might be a bit more accomodating. Remember that when airlines first operated, people got dressed up because it was a thing that didn't happen all the time because of the expense. It was a special event, not unlike a transatlantic ship voyage today.

The idea is not my own. It was suggested to me by a pilot who has flown for many, many years. After I heard it, I realized it just might work.

I am a very regular plane user and carry-on luggage is definately the biggest problem at present. If airline followed the strict 1-bag policy of Lufthansa then all would be better. I have had several times old ladies carrying on huge cases "it has my medicine in it" for 1 or 2 hr flights (stick it in your handbag!). I have lost count o the number of times I have been whacked by backpacks carried carelessly. I once got on a flight with 30 American ice-scaters (heading to a competition) most of us had to balance luggage on or knees for a 3hr flight!
CUT THE BAGS!

If they left the outer skin off planes, so that air circulated from outside, and just had metal struts down the outside instead, I bet you'd find people located their seats and got themselves strapped in, in under 15 seconds. Ok, they'd have to fly a lot lower, but who cares.