Looking for plane answer to airport conundrum

When Coláiste Mhuire students Ben Poynton, Patrick Carolan and Alan Dziadosz set about trying to determine the optimum method of having passengers board a plane while maximising profit, they went right to the top in their bid to get the inside track on how planes board passengers: they spoke with Ryanair chief and Westmeath man, Michael O’Leary.

Ben points out that anyone who flies is familiar with the frustration of queuing to get on to the plane: "It feels like forever before you even get to your seat, because the people in front of you are taking forever to get to their seats, because they are putting way too much luggage into the overhead luggage carrier, or they’re struggling to squeeze through other people in their row to get to their seats."

The question boiled down to efficiency, Patrick explained, adding that in an efficient workplace, productivity is increased, but costs go down – and that leaves both staff and customers happier.

The most common solution applied is back-to-front loading, but the boys’ research has shown, despite there being a reason and scientific fact for that method, it’s actually slower than randomly having passengers board, which, they say, is the method used by Ryanair.

The Ryanair method can still be improved, they found: "Our method has people go from the right side of the back row to the left side of the next row, continuing until there is one person in each row," Ben explains. The process is then repeated – and the boys have the data that shows their method trumps all other systems currently in use.

In fact, they reveal, if all the world’s airlines began using their method, that would result in a saving of 7 million seconds a year, or 115 days, which would obviously have a significant impact on both costs and profits.