Loading and Unloading Passenger Airliners: A Simulation Approach

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Abstracts 243
Loading and Unloading Passenger
Airliners: A Simulation Approach
Walter Jacob
Joshua Dunn
Matthew Oster
Rowan University
Glassboro, NJ
Advisor: Hieu D. Nguyen
Summary
Grounded planes cost airlines money. A major factor in determining the
grounding time of an airliner is the time that it takes to board passengers.
An optimal boarding method would therefore reduce costs to the airlines and
maximize profits by reducing the time the plane has to be on the ground and
also enabling the airlines to offer more flights.
Our assumptions were made with the real-world situation in mind. The
result is a model that behaves well and parallels the results of other contempo
rary research efforts. The considerations upon which our constraints are based
reflect the deterministic nature of the model.
We performed a series of empirical tests to obtain acceptable ranges for
parameters such as passenger walking speed and time required to stow carry
on luggage in an overhead compartment. Four different seating methods were
tested: open seating, back to front seating, Wilma, and our own modified
reverse pyramid seating.
Although each method has its own benefits, we concluded that Wilma out
performed the competing methods for the widest number of configurations. In
our simulations Wilma offered an average decrease of 1.8 min in small planes,
5.1 min in medium planes, and 2.6 min in large planes. Our model performed
very well with the tested scenarios and scales easily to cover other situations.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: This Meritorious paper won the Ben Fusaro Award for
the Airplane Seating Problem. The full text of the paper does not appear in this
issue of the Journal.]