by Zoë Pollock
Sarah Kliff summarizes a paper (pdf) by astrophysicist Jason Steffen that argues "the fastest way to board a plane is to have passengers line up beforehand in a very specific order":
Trials were run on a mock Boeing 757 parked on a California sound stage. It took 72 passengers 3 minutes and 36 seconds to board a 12-row plane using this technique. … Every minute a plane spends at a terminal costs $30, according to a recent study. Steffen estimates that if airlines implemented his boarding method they could save $110 million annually, netting the industry an extra $1 billion in total.
The Dish 