Western News: June 23, 2022

Thursday June 23 2022 5
Mathematicians world’s best
• From page 1
“They took the approach of
mathematically modelling the
variables and the boarding
process, then wrote a complex
computer program in Python
to run simulations of the
boarding process over and
over again.
“This enabled them to try
different boarding strategies
and see how they reacted to
changing variables like the
disobedience coefficient, passengers
with carry-on luggage,
or groups,” said Adams.
After running thousands
of trials and analysing the
results, the students were able
to settle on a strategy.
“This took them five full
days, including the time taken
to produce a professional and
polished report summarising
their process and findings.
“They did an incredible job.”
The students found three
factors contributed to the time
taken to board an aircraft,
including the walking speed
of passengers, the time taken
to stow overhead luggage with
passengers blocking the aisle
while doing so, and passengers
getting out of their seats to
allow other passengers in the
same row.
After running 10,000 trials,
they found that the most
optimal order of boarding was
aft, middle, and front. Using
TEST: The students ran simulations for boarding and
disembarking a narrow-body aircraft like this one.
PHOTO: DEAN PURCELL/NZ HERALD
this method the mean time
taken to fill up a narrow-body
airplane was
12 minutes and 48 seconds.
In comparison, it took on
average 14 minutes and 30 seconds
to board using the front,
middle, and aft method.
They also tested boarding
by seat type, seating all passengers
with a window seat
first, the middle next, and aisle
seats last. The mean boarding
time was 9 minutes and 49
seconds. However, this was
found to be unworkable in
practice due to the separation
of groups, particularly in
the case of children and the
elderly.
The random boarding
method, while seemly crude
and inefficient, was found to
be reasonably effective. It took
passengers on average 11 minutes
and 30 seconds to finish
boarding the plane.
When it came to exiting the
aircraft the optimal method
for a narrow-body aircraft
was found to be disembarking
from back to the front by row.
It was found to be the quickest
due to having the greatest aisle
flow.
This is opposite to the
“front to back” boarding
method, which is employed
by most airlines and was
found to be the slowest
disembarking method.
The best method of choice
to immediately speed up
passengers boarding and
disembarking in a standard
narrow-body aircraft was
for passengers to be boarded
using the WMA method –
window seats board first,
followed by middle seats
and then aisle seats, but
that groups board together,
minimising aisle blockages
and allowing optimal aisle
flow, and should disembark
giving the right of way to
passengers coming from the
back. Both methods minimise
aisle blockages, and allow
optimal aisle flow.
In a wide-body aircraft,
they found the optimal
boarding method was by
section – from back to front,
while disembarking using
the “across” method, similar
to the method for a narrow
aircraft, where passengers
furthest from the door get
right of way.
Adams said: “The team’s
creativity, teamwork and
mathematical skill make them
a standout and it will be exciting
to see where they go to
from here”.
The results of the study have
been collated in a 20-page
report and made available for
airline executives.
—NZ Herald
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