The United system, known as Wilma, boards passengers in order of window, middle and aisle seats. But it may not relieve all the bottlenecks, industry professionals argue.
With its newly revealed plan to change its airplane-boarding process, United Airlines UAL, -9.48% is clearly hoping to speed things up and relieve the bottlenecks that have long vexed passengers.United’s plan, which the airline says it has tested, is known in the industry as Wilma — which stands for first boarding passengers seated by a window , followed by those seated in the middle and concluding with those seated on the aisle .
“There is room for improvement,” said Jason Steffen, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who has written a series of research papers on the boarding process. Another speedier method than Wilma, experts say, is the kind of more randomly styled boarding process that Southwest Airlines LUV, -4.21% uses. Under that system, passengers don’t have assigned seats, but board in different groups and then claim whatever spot they can find.
“‘There’s this constant battle between wanting to do something that raises revenue and something that improves customer experience.’” But don’t expect United or any other airline to do away with the preferred boarding systems it has in place, said Robert Mann, a former airline-industry executive who’s now an industry consultant.
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