United Airlines will board window seat economy passengers first

A major airline has revealed its new plan to help reduce boarding time by up to two minutes and how long the plane spends sitting on the ground.

A major airline has revealed its plan to help reduce the amount of time the plane spends sitting on the ground.

A major airline has revealed its plan to help reduce the amount of time the plane spends sitting on the ground.

As of next week, United Airlines economy passengers sitting in the window seat will board the plane first — a move that the US-carrier says will shave up to two minutes off boarding time.

The new method called WILMA, which is meant to stand for window, middle and aisle, will see passengers board the aircraft in that exact order.

First class and business class passengers won’t see any changes.

United Airlines economy passengers sitting in a window seat will now board first. Picture: iStock

The airline was using WILMA up until 2017 when it introduced basic economy seating and had a computer system that only supported a five-group boarding structure.

However, newer technology now allows the Chicago-based airline to separate passengers into more than five boarding groups, which prompted the change, a United Airlines spokesperson told the New York Post.

The airline says it will help reduce boarding time of up to two minutes. Picture: iStock

If passengers are travelling in a group or as a family on the same economy reservation, they will be allowed to board their flight together.

There’s also no change for the pre-boarding group that includes travellers with disabilities, unaccompanied minors and active-duty military.

United said its boarding times have gone up by up to two minutes since 2019. It tested the new policy, known as WILMA, at five airports and found that it was indeed faster.

While it may not seem like a lot, it can make the difference between a flight being on time or late and resulting in penalties.

The plan will be implemented on domestic flights and some international flights and is due to take place on October 26.

Meanwhile, the airline recently announced it will add more direct flights between various locations in California and Australia’s east coast by the end of this year.

It will also more than tripling its direct services to Brisbane as part of the expansion and add more flights from NZ to the US.

This means flights between the US and Australia-New Zealand will increase by 40 per cent.

However, the new boarding structure currently only applies to US domestic flights and flights from the US to the Caribbean, Canada and some Central and South American cities.