A Simulation Study on Boarding and Deplaning Utilizing Two-Doors for a Narrow Body Aircraft

Boarding and deplaning processes are major and longest metrics for aircraft turnaround times. Currently, many studies have been conducted to develop more efficient strategies to reduce the boarding times. However, these studies, primarily focus on one-door boarding strategy for narrow body aircraft. Recent technological innovations provide the flexibility to add an extension to existing jet bridges making it possible to board and deplane through the front and rear doors of a narrow body aircraft. Motivated by this technological flexibility, the current study employs simulation approaches to examine, compare and contrast boarding and deplaning times utilizing one and two-door jet bridges. Different boarding and deplaning strategies are studied in this research. The results show significant time savings can be achieved for both boarding and deplaning for two-door jet bridges compared to current one-door practices.