ITA Airways momentous revolution: from June 5, finally goodbye to anarchy at the gate
Starting June 5, all passengers boarding an ITA Airways flight, excluding those [...]
ITA Airways
SkyTeam
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From June 5 all passengers who will board a flight ITA Airways, excluding those departing from a few airports Will have to change their habits. The Italian airline had remained, among traditional carriers, one of the few to board passengers only in two rows: priority and nonpriority. Basically in the same mode as the low-cost carriers.
With the start of the summer period, however, ITA Airways will finally switch to zone boarding as is the case with all other carriers in the world.
It is not a question of status symbol or to, to use a neologism, flex one's wealth. It's a matter of less chaos at boarding, a situation that now occurs (almost) only if you board with companies that do not strictly enforce this procedure.
How ITA Airways' boarding procedure is changing
Based on where your seat is within the aircraft and depending on your membership level in Volare or the Skyteam alliance, a specific Numbered zone, 1 through 8, shown on the boarding pass.
With this procedure, staff call boarding by zones, starting with Priority passengers (Exclusive Club, Business, Superior, Premium, and Comfort Economy class, families with children, and passengers who have requested assistance).
How to know your zone
Even if it was not being used, the zone has always been on ITA Airways' ticket, as it was on Alitalia's in the past. Only this procedure was never activated by the Italian company.
The only difference, which I noticed over the years, was that on long-haul routes 3 groups were used for boarding: priority and then according to the row where the passenger was seated.
How boarding changes (for the better)
Of course, the Italic passenger will need a long period of adaptation, but I hope the ground staff at Fiumicino and Linate instead of "letting people through" will strictly enforce this system. I am talking about these two airports in particular because they are the ones where almost all ITA passengers pass through, obviously abroad the gate attendants don't bother to send people back, let's hope it happens in Italy as well.
Passenger side of this procedure is that Allows you to relax and sit back until your group is called instead of standing in line for 40 minutes before the gate opens, or perhaps it would be better to say that it is the passenger's free choice to know that if they are in zone 8 they will see all the passengers in the other zones pass them by before they have access to board.
In conclusion
As a passenger I can only say "Bravo ITA, it's about time" now though let's see how it will be received. What is certain is that with the spread of automatic gates it will be easier to bounce the "distracted" passenger.
In doing so, we will (perhaps) say goodbye to certain supariets on board flights to Italy in which the Italic passenger always makes himself known. The fact remains that in my opinion the best procedure in the world is the one adopted by Southwest in the United States.
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