Ryanair plans wider doors to speed up boarding

[sn26567]

Ryanair plans to increase width of plane doors to speed up boarding
Budget airline says bigger doors will help slice minutes off turnaround times at airports

The Dublin-based carrier's latest idea is a radical change to basic aeroplane design: it has revealed that Chinese aircraft manufacturer Comac is working on a prototype budget-carrier jet with extra-wide doors allowing passengers to enter the aeroplane two by two. Howard Millar, Ryanair's deputy chief executive, said bigger doors would allow people on and off more quickly, slicing minutes off the quick turnaround times that are a keystone of any low-cost carrier.

On the other hand Boeing and Airbus were not interested in a bespoke aircraft.

Ryanair is interested in Comac's planned 200-seater C919 aircraft, which is being developed to rival the Boeing 737 and the Airbus A320, the dominant players in the commercial aircraft market. The 737 carries 189 passengers, so the C919 offers the potential for more lucrative flights for Ryanair.

More from The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012 ... um=twitter

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

Maybe FR can buy some Freighter-versions into a full pax aircraft, who cares about windows if you're flying cheap no ?

MoL keep doing it,free publicity with the biggest bullshit, if they still would be alive Hans Christian Anderson and fellows would be on their PR - department I guess ..

But still smart I must admit, thinking about those chinese engineers already

CX-B

[A330]

Isn't this the most hilarious airline? Just kidding, they only seem to come up with one idea after the other.
Wider doors means less seat rows? Will the aisle get wider as well? Otherwise you're just moving the bottleneck up.
In my personal experience with FR, boarding was not that terrible. But it's the time needed for all passengers to stow away their carry-on luggage, everybody tries to take the maximum, and there just isn't enough room for that.

[andorra-airport]

I doubt if it slice's of minutes of (de)boarding. The aisle will be the bottle neck. Not more then 1 person at a time can walk there, and most pax stand still there to stow the hand luggage.

[earthman]

I've never noticed the door to be any kind of bottleneck anyway. An extra aisle would help though. Using the back and front doors at the same time also helps.

Or how about this: at the gate, assign seats to passengers as they come, back to front (or center to front/rear if using both front and rear doors). Also something is needed to speed up disembarking, that might be a bit harder to do.

[A330]

Also something is needed to speed up disembarking, that might be a bit harder to do.

A system that evacuates all overhead bins into a big container on the tarmac with one push on the button by the FR crew. Everybody will be out in a whim, and spend ages to find and sort out their lugagge, but not FR's problem, passengers for the next flight can start boarding

[RoMax]

Wow, indeed...wider doors are really going to help... As everyone konws the small aisle is the big problem. Passengers stand still, look for their seat, find their seat, but hey, first they have to put their luggage in it, but of course the overhead bins are already quite full so it takes a lot of time before they realise they should beter put it under the seat in front of them, but no, first they try another time,... And meanwhile they are standing in the way of pax that want to go further into the cabin...
In my opinion it will only help to fill up the galleys even more/faster during boarding...

And RYR has to stop with that COMAC acting...they just try to get Boeing (or even Airbus) far enough to listen to their stupid demands. Since the last order of RYR back in 2007, Boeing always said: "NO!" to RYR's discount demands and their demands like standing places in the aircraft (because of that Boeing missed an order for more than 200 737's, but they prefered more small orders from other airlines than a big one from RYR with their stupid demands). Airbus already said 'NO!" for a much longer time. And now they try to get what they want by "using" COMAC.
Airbus and Boeing are not willing to do the huge costs for simply one airline while that airline dares to ask HUGE discounts for their aircraft at the same time... If Comac is willing to do this it's thanks to the money from the government and because they are quite desperate to get a bigger market share.

[Tomskii]

Hi,

Maybe FR can buy some Freighter-versions into a full pax aircraft, who cares about windows if you're flying cheap no ?

MoL keep doing it,free publicity with the biggest bullshit, if they still would be alive Hans Christian Anderson and fellows would be on their PR - department I guess ..

But still smart I must admit, thinking about those chinese engineers already

CX-B

Please, don't give them any ideas :p

[crew1990]

This is bullshit, as ex-cabin crew of ryanair i can tell you that the problem during the boarding was not the door, If they really want to board quicker they should not charge so much for a suitcase as the big problem during the boarding are the PAX wich can't find any room for their bags.

[flightlover]

Also something is needed to speed up disembarking, that might be a bit harder to do.

A system that evacuates all overhead bins into a big container on the tarmac with one push on the button by the FR crew. Everybody will be out in a whim, and spend ages to find and sort out their lugagge, but not FR's problem, passengers for the next flight can start boarding

To load:
A trapdoor next to the entry that leads to the bulk holds. All big hand luggage has to go in here. Only one tiny bag (say 20 cm x 30 cm x 10 cm) is allowed to be stowed in the overhead storage.

To offload:
Another trap door that leads outside with the hold designed as a slide, baggage to be dropped in an open cart and sorted by the passengers inside the terminal.

[earthman]

Yes, or they could even, let's say, take the luggage from the passengers during check-in already! Perhaps they could even hang a tag on the bags and give you a receipt, just to make it possible to check whether you actually take your own bag afterwards. They could even put the flight number and destination on the tag, just to make sure the thing gets on the right plane! Now that's a brilliant idea, didn't anybody think of this before?

[andorra-airport]

Well, boarding will be faster , as Ryanair starts to charge for hand bags. That time will come soon, for sure.

[appel]

why don't they buy QC versions?
just put everyone in a seat in the airport and then put the seats in the aircraft
don't think there is a faster way to embark and disembark the aircraft (and they might even start hauling cargo at night )

[Inquirer]

Also something is needed to speed up disembarking, that might be a bit harder to do.

A system that evacuates all overhead bins into a big container on the tarmac with one push on the button by the FR crew. Everybody will be out in a whim, and spend ages to find and sort out their lugagge, but not FR's problem, passengers for the next flight can start boarding

To load:
A trapdoor next to the entry that leads to the bulk holds. All big hand luggage has to go in here. Only one tiny bag (say 20 cm x 30 cm x 10 cm) is allowed to be stowed in the overhead storage.

To offload:
Another trap door that leads outside with the hold designed as a slide, baggage to be dropped in an open cart and sorted by the passengers inside the terminal.

Yes, or they could even, let's say, take the luggage from the passengers during check-in already! Perhaps they could even hang a tag on the bags and give you a receipt, just to make it possible to check whether you actually take your own bag afterwards. They could even put the flight number and destination on the tag, just to make sure the thing gets on the right plane! Now that's a brilliant idea, didn't anybody think of this before?

Haha, I was thinking exactly the same.

[regi]

KIS ( =keep it simple.):
put all passengers in a seperate container in the pre boarding area and shove that container in an airplane.

And marching in an airplane in couples is ridiculous if you can do it with 10 next to eachother.
http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Ai ... 40efbc461e

[earthman]

Ryanair wanted those but couldn't get enough of a discount from Lockheed.

[EBAW]

Maybe they can use a Beluga? That's a fast boarding!

[flightlover]

Maybe they can use a Beluga? That's a fast boarding!

or a B747-8F (or 4F) converted for passenger use except for the doors.
Advantages are:
- double aisle
- larger doors than you'll ever need (nose and rear)
- less orders for the plane so faster delivery
- more chances they get some discounts