American Airlines' Next Top Model 45 American Airlines' Next Top Model Sara. Beck spencer D. KBurg University of P get Sound Advisor: Michael Z Spiver Summary We design a simulation that replicates the behavior of passengers boarding airplanes of different sizes according to procedures currently implemented, as rell as a plan not currently in use. Variables in our model are deterministic or stochastic and include walking time, stowage time, and seating time. Boarding delays are measured as the sum of these variables. We physically model and observe common interactions to accurately reflect boarding time. We run 500 simulations for various combinations of airplane sizes and oarding plans. We analyze the sensitivity of each boarding algorithm, a well as the passenger movement algorithm, for a wide range of plane sizes and configurations. We use the simulation results to compare the effectiveness of the boarding plans. We find that for all plane sizes, the novel boarding plan Roller Coaster is the most efficient. The Roller Coaster algorithm essentially modifies the outside-in boarding method. The passengers line up before they board the plane and then board the plane by letter group. This allows most interferences to be avoided. It loads a small plane 67% faster than the next best option, a midsize plane 37% faster than the next best option, and a large plane 35 faster than the next best option Introduction The objectives in our study are To board (and deboard)various sizes of plane as quickly as possible opyright 2007 Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classro granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed ponents of this work owned by others than COMAP must be honored. To copy to republish, to post on servers, or to redistribute to lists requires prior permission from COMAP.American Airlines' Next Top Model 451 American Airlines' Next Top Model Sara J. Beck Spencer D. K'Burg Alex B. Twist University of Puget Sound Tacoma, WA Advisor: Michael Z. Spivey Summary We design a simulation that replicates the behavior of passengers boarding airplanes of different sizes according to procedures currently implemented, as well as a plan not currently in use. Variables in our model are deterministic or stochastic and include walking time, stowage time, and seating time. Boarding delays are measured as the sum of these variables. We physically model and observe common interactions to accurately reflect boarding time. We run 500 simulations for various combinations of airplane sizes and boarding plans. We analyze the sensitivity of each boarding algorithm, as well as the passenger movement algorithm, for a wide range of plane sizes and configurations. We use the simulation results to compare the effectiveness of the boarding plans. We find that for all plane sizes, the novel boarding plan Roller Coaster is the most efficient. The Roller Coaster algorithm essentially modifies the outside-in boarding method. The passengers line up before they board the plane and then board the plane by letter group. This allows most interferences to be avoided. It loads a small plane 67% faster than the next best option, a midsize plane 37% faster than the next best option, and a large plane 35% faster than the next best option. Introduction The objectives in our study are: * To board (and deboard) various sizes of plane as quickly as possible. The UMAP Journal 28 (3) (2007) 451-461. @Copyright 2007 by COMAP, Inc. All rights reserved. Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice. Abstracting with credit is permitted, but copyrights for components of this work owned by others than COMAP must be honored. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers, or to redistribute to lists requires prior permission from COMAP