“Are you ready to board?”

“Well, perhaps we should let the other passengers actually get off of the plane first. Good idea, yeah?”

I am not kidding even slightly when I say that I have had gate agents asking me if I am ready to board before the arriving passengers have even picked up their pink tagged bags! They expect us to deplane, clean and board before we even have a chance to go to the bathroom. Okay, boo hoo, right!

Starting December 1st, Comair’s new policy will be that boarding will begin at 25 minutes versus 20 minutes.  Really, who cares? It’s only 5 minutes. Personally, I wish that they would board my First Class cabin at 25 minutes and then send the rest of the passengers 5-10 minutes after that. If gives me a chance to hang their coats and offer a beverage.

The problem is that when we are running late to begin with or have been going all day and could really use that lousy 5 minutes, the gate agents may use the new policy against us. How much time do you really need to board an aircraft that holds anywhere fro 50 to 78 people? I can have that plane filled in 10 minutes unless I get one of those that cannot figure how to put away the 23 things that they just had to have on an hour flight.

What amount of time do you feel is reasonable to load a regional jet?

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