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This happens constantly during deplaning? I think this is a little quirk of how the animation is rendering. There are "little people" standing in the rows behind whoever is currently gathering belongings.

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Yes, but no one waits for the guy in front of them to completely exit the plan before they walk down the aisle. It's always the entire line moves and people are always getting in the line. Never does row 12 wait for row 12 to be totally off the plane before standing and getting in the aisle. Row 13 is about 6 inches behind row 12 as they all walk out of the airplane. The only difference in real life between this proposed optimal is that in this design, you intentionally call out aisle, middle, window, while in the real world all the aisle people stand up automatically without being told. I'm saying his plan is already what's in the world just less planned and rigorous. But I've never been on a full plane where the aisle is empty as much as in the straw man simulation in this one.

So what do you think the real number of people who can fit in the aisle per row? 1.2? 1.5? 2?

Based on every single airplane I've ever seen or been on, with bags I'd say about 0.8 times an many people as there are rows, plus about 4 people between the front row and the exit door. On a Southwest 737 with 24 rows, that works out to about 23 people.

I've never seen deplaning be the hold up, it's boarding that takes forever. But getting people to follow complicated high-speed boarding plans is like herding cats.

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