The Most Mathematically Efficient Way to Board a Plane

In an orderly TED-Ed lesson by educator Rachel Yang, directed by Avi Ofer and narrated by Addison Anderson, Anderson explains how mathematicians have been studying and devising faster ways to board a plane for years, addressing the two biggest boarding bottlenecks.

These models are designed to consider the two biggest plane loading bottlenecks. The first is “seat interference” when someone in a seat closer to the window is blocked by people already in their row. And the second is aisle interference when passengers seated in the back of the plane are stalled by folks in earlier rows stowing their bags and settling in.

These methods include back-to-front boarding, WMA (Window, Middle, Aisle), and the Steffen Method, which staggers passengers by row and seat position to allow more people to stow luggage and sit simultaneously. While these look great in theory, implementation is far more difficult.

Before you cancel your tickets, it’s worth noting that there really isn’t much time to be saved. Even the most perfectly executed boarding strategy would likely only save us about 10 minutes. So perhaps the best solution is to take a breath, allow your fellow passengers some grace, and try to enjoy the ride.