| The phrase "Please wait until your row is called" has been banished from Northwest Airlines gates.
Mike Meyers, Star Tribune
The phrase "Please wait until your row is called" has been banished from Northwest Airlines gates. In recent weeks, the Eagan-based carrier has quit its longstanding practice of boarding passengers by rows, from the back of the plane forward. Passengers still get assigned seats, but most now can board whenever they're ready.
The change, tests showed, should pare an average of seven minutes off the boarding process, according to the airline.
Northwest ran trials of the new boarding system in three or four markets on the East and West coasts in February, Northwest spokesman Dean Breest said.
"The bottom line is that it works and goes faster," he said.
The new boarding system also will be used in Asian markets where Northwest flies. It is not being introduced in Europe, however, given that KLM Royal Dutch Airlines operates many Northwest code-share flights through Amsterdam.
But Northwest won't be turning off the public address system for boarding entirely. People who have small children or who are boarding with wheelchairs or crutches still will receive priority, as will those in first class, Elite WorldPerks customers and passengers seated at exit rows, Breest said.
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