By Kelly Yamanouchi
Denver Post Staff Writer
Passengers assigned to window seats will board all United Airlines planes first, starting Thursday.
The new boarding system – nicknamed “WilMA,” for Window-Middle-Aisle – was designed to shave four to five minutes off the average boarding time and $1 million off the airline’s annual budget.
United began testing the system in Denver in May, loading passengers onto its narrow-body planes. Typically, the airline boards most economy passengers by seat number – from the back of the plane to the front.
The WilMA system is aimed at easing the congestion caused when aisle- and middle-seat passengers stand up so window- seat passengers can slip past them.
Economy passengers throughout United, Ted and United Express will adopt the WilMA-style system Thursday, said United spokesman Dave Dimmer.
“It saves our passengers time, and it could save upwards of a million dollars annually just by getting the planes up in the air quickly,” Dimmer said. “Any nonutilized time is going to cost money. We just need to be more efficient.”
Steve Nace, a traveler from Phoenix who passed through Denver International Airport on Tuesday, flies often for his job as a satellite sales engineer. He thinks WilMA sounds like a great idea.
“It’s just logical,” Nace said. He prefers the aisle seat and said he notices the traffic jams that occur in the aisle when he gets up to let the window-seat passenger pass.
Dan Ellsworth, from Kansas City, was more concerned about room in the overhead storage bins, which often get filled by the earliest boarders.
“I assume the passengers with the aisle seats will experience the most inconvenience,” Ellsworth said.
Staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi can be reached at kyamanouchi@denverpost.com or 303-820-1488.
