How It Works

The Flying Carpet is a carpet (or mat) marked with a scaled-down replica of a generic aircraft seating plan. It is placed on the floor just beyond the boarding pass checking station.

When boarding commences, passengers file past gate staff who check their passes (paper or phone) in the normal way, then step onto their clearly marked seat numbers on the FC. After 15 to 20 passengers have gone through and taken their places, gate staff pause checking for a few seconds to allow this first group to vacate the FC and walk to the plane.

Checking resumes until the next group of 15 to 20 passengers form up; this takes about 30 to 35 seconds. Checking is paused again for 10 to 15 seconds, enough time for this second group to clear the carpet.
The process is repeated until all passengers are aboard, typically 8 to 10 groups, about 45 seconds per group.

Inside the plane, passengers (being in row order) can go directly to their seats without having to push past each other. In a typical airplane having thirty rows of seats, the 15 to 20 passengers find themselves well-spaced along the aisle with plenty of elbow room to stow their bags and get seated simultaneously ! They take about 30 seconds, just enough time to do so before the next small group arrives.

Ten groups, one every 45 seconds, gets up to 200 people aboard a plane in 450 seconds (= nine minutes) plus another minute for the last few passengers to walk down the aisle and get seated.

It’s far quicker than any other method and not just a theory, it works !
In our second trial 151 passengers were aboard in 10 minutes, possibly a world record.