Effects of a hand luggage guiding system on airplane boarding time and passenger experience

Abstract

Airplane boarding is a time-consuming procedure due to a number of factors. First of all, passengers cannot pass each other in the aisles, but also stress is experienced in finding the seat or the space to store hand luggage and some passengers repack their luggage in the aisle. To reduce boarding time and improve the overall boarding experience a light guiding hand luggage system (GHL-System) was developed within the PASSME project. Due to the GHL passengers in the airplane see a light in the overhead bin which will shine more bright coming closer. This GHL-system did reduce stress levels while boarding and indicated a time saving of 3-4 minutes on a Boeing 737-800 flight with 189 passengers. Indicating a personal luggage spot located near the passenger seat might solve the problem of passengers not being able to find their space. Further research is needed on actual flight conditions to prove the effect of this system.