In the quest for peak operational efficiency, airlines often fall into a trap: they mistake automation for speed. Airlines try to solve one problem but invariably they create new issues which may also result in solving the original problem. The latest example of this comes from American Airlines, which is rolling out automated boarding gates. These are essentially high-tech turnstiles under the guise of improving the boarding experience.
However, as Gary Leff points out in a recent analysis for View from the Wing, “American Airlines says turnstiles will improve boarding, they may just make flying worse,” the reality is likely to be a frustrating lesson in unintended consequences. Far from speeding up the process, these digital bouncers are poised to become the ultimate airport bottleneck.
Here is why the turnstile era will likely make the boarding scramble slower than ever.
The “Hard Stop” Problem
The primary marketing pitch for these gates is that they prevent gate lice, the passengers who try to board with Group 1 when they are actually assigned to Group 7. Currently, a gate agent has to manually catch these people, which can cause a brief awkwardness. This does not frequently happen so gate lice ends up boarding early.
With a turnstile, the rejection is automated. But here’s the issue: a gate agent can multitask. If a passenger tries to board early, an agent can quickly say, Please step to the side and wait for your group, while simultaneously scanning the next person in line. A turnstile, however, creates a physical and digital hard stop. If the person at the front of the line triggers a rejection, the entire flow of boarding ceases until that person figures out how to back out of the narrow lane, potentially fighting against a crowd of people pushing forward behind them. What can happen is that a gate agent can waive that person through in order to keep the line moving. The end result may be the same in that the gate lice boards early.
The Tech Glitch Factor
We have all been behind the person whose phone screen is too dim, whose QR code won’t load, or whose paper boarding pass is crinkled beyond recognition. Human agents are experts at workarounds. This happens not only to the older and less traveler oriented people but also to pretty much everyone. They can type in a record locator, look up a name, or quickly print a new pass. Automated gates are notoriously fickle. If the scanner fails to read a device, the passenger is stuck in a glass-walled cage. Instead of a quick fix from an agent who is already standing there, the passenger now has to wait for an agent to leave their podium, walk over to the turnstile, and manually override the system. Every time a screen fails to scan, the efficiency of the gate evaporates.
Solving the Wrong Problem
Airlines love to blame gate lice for slow boarding because it shifts the blame onto the passengers. But as Leff notes, the real reason boarding is slow isn’t because people are boarding in the wrong order it’s because of overhead bin space. Boarding slows down when the plane’s interior hits capacity. When a passenger is hunting for a spot for their roller bag or when a flight attendant has to begin the valet tagging process, the line in the jet bridge stalls. Automated gates do nothing to solve this. In fact, by mechanically pushing people through the gate at a set interval, the airline may actually create a more dangerous crush inside the jet bridge, as people are funneled into a confined space where there is nowhere to go.
The Loss of Human Flexibility
Boarding a plane is a chaotic, human endeavor. Families get separated; elderly passengers need extra time; people traveling together might have different group numbers. A human gate agent can see a mother with three toddlers and make a common-sense decision to let them through together. A turnstile cannot. It is a rigid, binary system. This lack of flexibility creates friction points where passengers have to stop to explain their situation to an agent anyway. By inserting a machine between the passenger and the agent, the airline adds a layer of bureaucracy that only serves to frustrate the traveler.
The Bottom Line: Labor vs. Speed
The truth behind the turnstiles is likely less about improving the boarding process and more about reducing labor costs. If a machine can scan a ticket, the airline eventually needs fewer agents at the gate. But for the traveler, the result is clear. Instead of a fluid, human-managed process, we are entering an era of serial processing, one person at a time, one error at a time, one delay at a time. American Airlines may call it improvement, but for the passenger stuck behind a malfunctioning glass door, it will feel like just another way the airline has made flying a little bit more difficult.