At a gate in Denver Int'l there is a United plane with 2 jetbridges.
Why do some airports put 2 jetbridges on a plane? Is it necessary?
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user13197
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8It is actually very common to put multiple jetbridges on wide-bodies. The A380 uses 3. – SMS von der Tann Feb 15 '16 at 01:07
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2Some actually have three for some planes – fooot Feb 15 '16 at 03:01
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10Why do you assume that they have to? – David Richerby Feb 15 '16 at 06:13
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2Note that for instance EasyJet in Prague (PRG) uses a jet bridge plus it makes the passengers seated at the back of the place to go down on the tarmac and up by standard stairs. I believe this significantly reduces the boarding time whence the airport tax, which is quite large in PRG. – yo' Feb 15 '16 at 08:42
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1@yo' is the tax really time-dependent? Normally easyjet etc. want to minimise the turnaround time for their own operational reasons rather than anything external. – Chris H Feb 15 '16 at 12:03
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1@ChrisH Honestly, I don't know,it was just an assumption. Of course, the operational costs could be an argument as well. – yo' Feb 15 '16 at 12:16
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Look at the size of that aircraft and guess why! Who wants to keep the gate busy when they can utilize two bridges to transfer people faster than one on big aircraft – Hanky Panky Feb 15 '16 at 15:05
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Confusing question ... They hardly "HAVE TO" ..... it's just much, much better. You may as well ask "why do some airports 'have to' use bridges rather than just a bus and steps. – Fattie Feb 15 '16 at 19:58
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@kepler22b I don't understand. The title used to be "why do they do it?" and the question used to be "why do they have to do it?" You get a bunch of comments saying that they don't have to do it so the real question is just "why do they do it?" But then you edit the title so it includes the incorrect "have to", rather than editing the body to remove it. IDGI. – David Richerby Feb 16 '16 at 00:04
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Because they can. – Michael Hall Sep 08 '23 at 04:28
4 Answers
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It is not strictly necessary. But it is done in order to save time.
More points of passenger loading leads to faster loading, potentially reducing delays, airport charges, etc.
In some cases, there is a separate jet bridge for first/business class.
For large aircraft like A380 etc, is quite common to use multiple jet bridges, as use of a single one may lead to quite long loading time.
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1Also, some planes have more than one floor for passengers and they might not want everyone to go through the narrow stairs. – Stephan Branczyk Feb 15 '16 at 05:43
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@StephanBranczyk exactly; not a big deal for 747 (though you don't want your upper floor/class passengers to have to climb) with it's handful of seats on the upper deck, but in the 380... – yo' Feb 15 '16 at 08:40
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The reason they use 2 or sometimes even 3 (A380) for wide-body aircraft (I have seen 2 on a B757, but that is rare) is because the more entrances to facilitate faster boarding and unloading passengers from the airplane. It saves much more time than loading the plane from one jetbridge and in the case of the A380, there are 2 full wide-body decks to fill. Passengers also like getting on and getting off the plane quicker as well.
Interesting that there is this similar question on travel.se
SMS von der Tann
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3Believe it or not, a decade ago, Southwest experimented with using two jet bridges for boarding 737's at the Albany NY airport. It really did make boarding faster but I haven't seen done recently. – Brian Borchers Feb 15 '16 at 15:37
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So that economy class passengers can also see at least one of the higher classes (when they exit) and wish they booked that! :-/ Trust me you sure will wish that and that someday can mean more $ for the airline
Source: Original picture was taken from this very question
Joking aside I have seen it happen on many airlines. The people on left Aisle go out from the first one and people on the right aisle take the longer route to exit from the gate that's closer to cockpit.
Primary reason must be to transfer people faster to make the jet available for crew as soon as possible specially after a landing when the jet has to fly again in an hour.
Hanky Panky
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This answer is inaccurate or, at least, incomplete. I've never seen dual jet bridges used in the way described here. On all occasions that I've boarded a plane that had two jetbridges attached, all economy passengers went through the rear jetbridge, presumably to avoid disturbing the people in the fancy seats by having half a planeload of people trog past them. – David Richerby Feb 16 '16 at 06:32
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1So if you have never seen that happen that means that is inaccurate? I have recently seen it happen twice, once at KUL and once at BKK. And those fancy seats people offload before not so fancy ones do. Both on TG. – Hanky Panky Feb 16 '16 at 06:37
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@DavidRicherby write your own answer if you think this one is inaccurate. – user13197 Feb 16 '16 at 11:55
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@HankyPanky I said "inaccurate or, at least, incomplete". There are many occasions on which dual jetbridges are used but are not used in the way you describe. – David Richerby Feb 16 '16 at 15:40
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@kepler22b There are plenty of answers that already cover this. – David Richerby Feb 16 '16 at 15:42
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But if you are really annoyed by this answer just make your own answer correcting this one. Because first you said that the title was wrong, then that the answer is inaccurate, what else comes next? – user13197 Feb 16 '16 at 16:04
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In addition to Aeroalias' answer, some airports adopt a Multi Aircraft(Apron) Ramp System.
The gate may be used by multiple small or a single large aircraft. It allows airport planners to make their gates more flexible and efficient. In such a case two or more jet bridges are needed for a single gate.
Some of the busiest airports including Beijing Capital, London Heathrow and New York JFK have already adopted such a system.
More details can see this article.
