An airport that loads passengers like human cargo
Leasing an Airbus A380 sure is a lot of fun, but when it’s on the ground it’s like a ticking clock with money pouring out if it. The lease is 20,000 USD every single day. But if you manage to keep it in the air, you can make 130,000 USD. Passengers are obviously trying to make their total journey as short as possible, and they will not stop doing that until they get teleportation. Airports are trying to get as many flights as possible, including the money-spending passengers in them.
In this business, no one wins while on the ground. The typical airline turnaround time is 45 minutes to an hour. How could it be 5 minutes?
We would separate cabin from fuselage and have a separate cabin for arriving and one for departing. This will let us handle departing and arriving passengers at the same time. The replacement cabin is clean, passengers, already in their seats, bags already be in the bag room below the seats. Our passengers boarded before the plane was on the ground.
Taking that another step further, the passengers got into their seats at the train station in the nearest city. This also opens options for security checks. Maybe it’s done on the train, spending the transport time efficiently. Maybe the bags could be x-rayed in the bag room itself, or while entering the bag room.
In the case of delays, or for those arriving by car, passengers at the gate can get up and walk around, and quickly get back in their seats by walking straight to their rows.
With a decimated turnaround, airlines can cut prices and you can spend an extra hour at home before leaving for the airport.