United Airlines will start prioritizing passengers in window seats later this month when it resurrects a plane-boarding system that reportedly saves about two minutes, according to an internal company document obtained by The Post.
Economy passengers who booked a window seat will board first beginning Oct. 26, followed by the middle seat and then those on the aisle — a practice known internally as WILMA.
United previously used its WILMA boarding method up until 2017, when it introduced basic economy seating and had a computer system that only supported a five-group boarding structure, a company spokesperson told The Post on Wednesday.
Newer technology now allows the Chicago-based airline to separate passengers into more than five boarding groups, which prompted the change, the spokesperson said.
Through this new process, United will execute a boarding system that involves six groups plus travelers who qualify for “preboarding” — such as customers with disabilities, active military members, and unaccompanied minors — then first-class ahead of business-class passengers, per the memo.
Economy passengers with tickets for a window, middle or aisle seat will then board in group three, four and five, respectively.
The sixth group is reserved for basic economy on domestic flights, as well as those who don’t have a boarding group on their pass, per United’s memo.
Since United stopped using the WILMA method, boarding times have increased by two minutes, according to the internal memo.
Ahead of re-implementing the boarding structure, the airline has been testing its plan at four domestic airports, including one of its major hubs, though the memo did not disclose which airports were participating in the WILMA rollout.
Southwest Airlines also recently tweaked its already-unusual boarding protocols, limiting the number of “EarlyBird” check-in spots that passengers have historically been able to purchase for an extra fee to jump ahead of their fellow passengers in the race for the best seats.
The change took effect on Aug. 15.
Unlike other major US airlines, Southwest does not assign passengers to specific seats ahead of time. Instead, passengers board in the order that they checked in for the flight and pick seats once they are on the plane.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
