At Southwest, 2 doors are better than 1
The airline is testing a way to save time and money by emptying its planes faster.
For years, the airline industry has experimented with different ways to load passengers onto planes in an effort to save time and money.
Carriers have tried seating passengers starting at the front of the cabin, and at the back. They’ve tried allowing passengers in window seats to board first, then middle, then aisle.
Now Southwest Airlines is testing a way to save time at the end of a flight by unloading passengers simultaneously from the front and back of a plane.
The Dallas-based carrier began June 1 to test using two doors to unload passengers at Sacramento International Airport and San Jose International Airport.
Some of the passengers have been exiting into jetways while the travelers exiting from the back of the plane take a staircase to the tarmac.
“The test period will help the carrier determine when to use dual door deplaning and to identify whether or not this process can be expanded to more airports across the network,” Southwest spokeswoman Casey Dunn said.
Dual-door operations have been used periodically by Southwest in the past in other airports, including Sacramento, San Jose, Burbank and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., “and have proven successful in improving both on time performance as well as the customer experience,” Dunn said.
TSA, American test 3-D carry-on scan
A new luggage-scanning technology that increases security and speeds the screening lines may be on the way.
A computed tomography scanner, also known as a CT scanner, can not only look through your luggage for bombs or weapons but can create a 3-D image of the contents to allow screeners to rotate the image to every possible angle.
For more than a decade, the Transportation Security Administration has used CT scanners to screen checked bags but the machines have been too big and loud to use in the terminal screening areas where carry-on bags are examined. Until now.
The TSA and American Airlines began testing the use of smaller, more advanced CT scanners for carry-on luggage at one lane of Terminal 4 at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
The testing began Thursday and will continue indefinitely, with further tests at other airports likely to follow.
“We already use this type of technology for checked baggage and we expect these smaller, checkpoint-sized machines will provide the same high level of security,” TSA Acting Administrator Huban Gowadia said.
The scanners also use sophisticated algorithms to detect explosives, firearms and other banned items.
If the tests are successful, TSA officials say, the scanner could let travelers leave liquids, gels and laptops in carry-on bags to shorten the screening time.
Airline stocks rise despite scandals
A passenger is bloodied as he is dragged from his seat in April after refusing to give it up to crew members on a United Airlines flight.
Later that same month, a family flying home from a Hawaiian vacation is booted from a Delta Air Lines flight after a dispute over seating for an infant.
In May, Violence erupted at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida after Spirit Airlines canceled several flights because of a labor dispute with pilots.
All three scenes have become content for viral videos, viewed by millions of people worldwide. But despite such ugly incidents involving the nation’s airlines, their stock prices have continued to rise.
Shares of American, Delta and United have each climbed at least 5% this year while Southwest Airlines has climbed 20%. A New York Stock Exchange index of airline stocks, the Arca Airline Index, has jumped nearly 150% over the last 10 years.
While airlines suffer short-term reputation damage by such incidents, experts say the industry has become so consolidated after a series of mergers and acquisitions that it would be difficult to get travelers to abandoned their favorite airline.
“Business travelers, the most lucrative customers from the airline’s perspective, tend to stick with airlines that offer the most flights from their home airport and on which the traveler probably has lots of frequent-flier miles,” said Philip A. Baggaley, managing director at Standard & Poor’s Global.
Jan K. Brueckner, a UC Irvine economics professor, added that the U.S. economy remains strong and “people don't have any choice besides the airlines if they need to get to a faraway place.”