How many buses to transport 555 pax?

Today I landed in Johannesburg and because of ramp construction the all
the pax on the Cathay Pacific 747 had to be bussed from a parking spot
in the middle of the apron to a jetbridge.

Last month engine problems with a LAN Chile A340 caused a 3 am flight
cancellation, requiring all the pax to reclaim baggage, clear customs,
and be bussed to a hotel in Santiago (and busses were hard to find at 3
am in Santiago), where it took over 2 hours to get everyone through the
hotel checkin lines. Then the rescheduled flight got into Auckland
too late for any connections so once again all the pax had to clear
customs and be bussed to a hotel.

In both cases I was thinking how much worse it would be if the plane
were an A380 with 500+ pax. The logistics were tough enough to manage
on the smaller planes. The first case would just be more annoying, but
I just can't imagine going through the LAN Chile ordeals with almost
twice as many fellow pax as I did on that flight.

In both cases I was thinking how much worse it would be

I've been to numerous conventions where 1000+ people have all gotten on
buses for an event. If you have the dozen buses lined up you can probably
load 500+ pax on board buses as fast as you can deplane.

Cheers,
Geoff Glave
Vancouver, Canada

: I've been to numerous conventions where 1000+ people have all gotten on
: buses for an event. If you have the dozen buses lined up you can probably
: load 500+ pax on board buses as fast as you can deplane.

Some may think I am talking about Nigeria or Kenya, but...

Only a few years ago, Chicago O'Hare's International Terminal #4
(before they built the current #5) could not bring planes to the
terminal and passengers had to be bussed from and to their flights.

I must say it worked pretty well. I don't recall any inordinate delays
caused by this.

Ajanta wrote:
: I've been to numerous conventions where 1000+ people have all gotten on
: buses for an event. If you have the dozen buses lined up you can probably
: load 500+ pax on board buses as fast as you can deplane.

Some may think I am talking about Nigeria or Kenya, but...

What Nigeria or Kenya. It's like this in several European airports

Ajanta wrote:

Some may think I am talking about Nigeria or Kenya, but...

Only a few years ago, Chicago O'Hare's International Terminal #4
(before they built the current #5) could not bring planes to the
terminal and passengers had to be bussed from and to their flights.

Lots of first class international airports use buses from parking pads.
Frankfurt, Heathrow, Gatwick are just a few that come to mind.

The type of buses they use are larger and designed for standing room, so they
can get a lot of passengers onboard. I'm guessing close to 100 per bus for the
ones I've been on, so it doesn't take many buses to service a plane.