- Airlines are introducing new technologies and strategies to turn planes around faster as they look for ways to save costs.
- American Airlines is allocating gates more efficiently to avoid parking delays and reduce taxi time.
- A few minutes saved can mean significant cost savings for the carrier.
Passengers make their way through the terminal as they travel before the Thanksgiving holiday at Washington Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia, in November 2019. 22, 2023.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
In air travel, minutes matter.
A few moments can be the difference between making or missing a connection for passengers – and can avoid delays that stretch across airline schedules. Saving time can also result in significant savings for carriers as they strive to control costs.
Major airlines are rolling out strategies that executives say could translate into lower costs and more efficient operations, even if the time savings on paper appear minimal.
Some of these tools will be tested during what is expected to be a busy holiday season, a year after the collapse left thousands of passengers stranded at the end of 2022. Many improvements are being made behind the scenes.
American Airlines last year began using new technology to customize flight gates at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the second busiest airport in the world and America’s largest hub, where it operates through 135 regional and mainland gates.
The new procedures, which replaced an hours-long semi-manual process, allowed the airline to avoid crossing many of its planes from the east to the west side of the sprawling airport, saving an average of two minutes of taxi time per flight. Up to 11 hours are saved daily, American said.
The technology helped reduce the time taken by taxis by 20%, and cut gate changes and conflicts in half, according to the transportation company.
“The airline’s overnight gate operation took from four hours to about 10 minutes,” American Chief Operating Officer David Seymour said.
The so-called Smart Gating program has been expanded to include Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Miami International Airport, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and, most recently, in May, O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Seymour said, adding that the airline is considering using the Smart Gating program. Technology in Phoenix as well.
Gate technology at other airports aims to avoid gate congestion that could delay flights from departing or parking upon arrival.
“If you try to make gate changes late at night as planes are arriving… you could get out of sync with your caterers and fuel providers,” Seymour said, adding that the American-made tools are tailored to each airport’s problems.
In the first eight months of the year, 76.4% of U.S. flights arrived within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival times, what the Department of Transportation considers on-time. This performance is classified as American third Among major U.S. airlines for on-time arrivals, an improvement from fifth place during the same period last year.
Shorter taxi times and other improvements can help airlines save fuel, one of the biggest costs airlines incur. American said its new gate program saves it 1.4 million gallons of fuel annually, the equivalent of about $4 million based on fuel prices at major U.S. airports this month.
The American is not alone in looking to shave off a few minutes.
Last month, United Airlines launched new economy class boarding procedures, accommodating passengers who sit next to the window first, then in the middle and then in the aisle. United told employees the changes could save up to two minutes per flight.
Southwest Airlines this year also experimented with ways to speed up the boarding process, trying everything from better signage to music on the bridge to keep passengers moving. For years, flight attendants and gate agents at Delta Air Lines have used digital messaging during boarding, sending alerts about issues like full overhead bins.
Discount airline Frontier Airlines aims to speed up the process of boarding and deplaning via routes beyond jet bridges. The company began using stairs directly to get on and off the plane, taking advantage of the second door in the carrier’s Airbus aircraft.
“If you want to get on a plane faster, take two [gates] “Instead of one,” said CEO Barry Biffle.
The Denver-based airline is in talks with several airports to increase this type of boarding, without a traditional jet bridge. Biffle estimated that a third of the company’s flights could use stairs to get up and down within about two years.
This could save up to 10 minutes of turnaround time, which is the amount of time it takes the plane to stop, descend, reload and depart, Biffle said.
How airlines use it to save time will be key, said Robert Mann, who has worked at several airlines and is president of aviation consulting firm RW Mann & Co. He said putting that back on the schedule could mean airlines wouldn’t have to devote as much time to the flight.
“When you actually plan for shorter flight times, you have more aircraft available,” he said.
An American Airlines spokesperson said that as the airline becomes more efficient, in future schedules, it can allocate less time to each flight, increasing the airline’s ability to add more flights.
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