In theory, a better way to load a plane

How to get passengers onto planes has been a recurring topic on this blog. It is one of the few topics (possibly the only one) we have covered as much as MythBusters has.

Now we get a claim that a professor and a student from Clarkson University have found a better way (Faster Method of Boarding Planes Devised by Clarkson University Researchers, Jan 6). Here they discussing their proposal.

Their work is published in Journal of Air Transport Management and can be found here. Here is the outline of their method.

The key aspect of our proposed method is that it assigns airplane passengers to seats so that their carry-on luggage is spread roughly evenly throughout the plane. This reduces the time passengers take to find available storage in the overhead bins when storing their luggage. We assume each passenger is carrying onto the plane either two…