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The Fastest Way to Board a Plane Feels Like the Slowest

CGP Grey · 37.5M views · 2019-02-04 · 8:28

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Overview

CGP Grey compares airplane boarding methods, based on an arXiv paper, and shows why the intuitive back-to-front approach is slow while random or outside-in boarding does better.

On Hacker News

It is the default link in any thread about boarding or deplaning order, praised as an excellent, clear treatment.

Recommended by 9 HN people across 6 months · HN mentions 2020–2023

Topics

Aviation & aerospace engineeringAlgorithms & data structures
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boarding methodsqueueingairlinessimulationcgp grey

What people said

sand500 · 2023-09 · Strong recommendation

Highly recommend this video of plane boarding methods by CGP Grey [VIDEO] The end is the real kicker, how we deplane is the worst method.

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ninjinxo · 2023-08 · Strong recommendation

Better off watching CGP Grey's video "The Better Boarding Method Airlines Won't Use" which has more discussion of the topic, more simulations, and puts forward better methods that are either faster or allow families to remain grouped. [VIDEO] This is basically [LINK] but differs to the paper in that it doesn't consider: alternating odd-and-even row disembarkment, which would give passengers more aisle space to potentially speed-up luggage handling.

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djha-skin · 2023-10 · Recommendation

Obligatory reference to CGP Grey's excellent treatment of the topic (video): [VIDEO] And he shows that window middle aisle saves a little bit of time, but not much.

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Sources

Video by CGP Grey, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

Views, duration and playback status refresh separately from the published catalog. When an update fails, existing data remains visible.

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Rule matches identify candidates. They do not guarantee video quality or financial results.

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