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New: Take a bus to your plane at SFO

Remote stand Turkish Airlines

Remote stands are common in Europe, like this one a Istanbul Ataturk Airport (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

To help meet the feverish demand for gate space, Virgin America and Alaska Airlines started using a remote stand at San Francisco International last month.

Remote stands are a lot more common overseas than they are in the U.S. where nearly every flight loads and unloads passengers via enclosed jetways at each gate. Instead, passengers take a bus (usually crowded) across the airport apron to or from a plane parked at a remote “stand.” At the plane, passengers use portable (or built-in) stairs to get to or from the doorway.

Remote stands are different from open air boarding at the gate seen at many smaller airports. These stands are usually located far from the gate and require a sometimes lengthy bus ride.  (Last year at Heathrow, I was on one for about 20 minutes!)

Airport bus stands

Remote stands require a bus ride to or from the airport terminal (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

When flying down to Los Angeles last week I peered out the window of the plane and saw an Alaska Air Embraer parked at a remote stand with a passengers boarding via a staircase leading up to the door. A low-slung SFO bus was parked next to it.

Doug Yakel confirmed to TravelSkills that a remote stand has been in use at SFO since mid-August. “Right now, it’s being used by Alaska on a scheduled basis…about 4-5 of their Embraer aircraft per day are operating remote. This is due to the Alaska/Virgin growth, and their efforts to operate more in a single terminal, along with the fact that Terminal 1 is under construction right now.”

The bus runs from SFO’s gate 59 in Terminal 2.

Ryanair stairs Mykonos

In Greece, this Ryanair 737 uses its own built-in stairs for passenger access at the front, and portable stairs at the back. (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Most travelers dislike remote stands since since they add a delay to the airport boarding/deboarding experience. I’m not sure how they comply with ADA requirements. Plus wind and rain can make using them less than comfortable. However as an aviation geek I find it exhilarating to be out on the ramp on a clear day with engines roaring and the smell of jet fuel in the air… but that’s just me 🙂

On the upside, remote stands do allow airlines to add new service or flights, and reduce the increasingly frequent and irritating “wait for the gate” type delays upon arrival.

What are your thoughts on remote stands? Have you used one at SFO yet? Anywhere else? Please leave your comments below.

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Comments

  1. In can be a nightmare for a tight connection. You are stuck sitting on a bus waiting for it to fill up and then drive to the terminal. Beware!

  2. Remote stands for small regional flights are one thing (still annoying because you have to stand on the bus, but I understand why it’s necessary), but for widebody planes it’s just offensive. AKL once unloaded a 777 I’d flown in from SFO on at a remote stand, and CPT boarded an A340 to JNB with buses.

  3. I would take a remote stand any day instead of 30-40-50 min waiting for a gate. The problem with remote gates (and I live in Europe so I board this way quite often) is some greedy airlines that try to pack too many pax into a bus, so crowding. If not that then bus gates are fine. They allow to use terminal space more efficiently and add a bunch of flights.

    As for ADA. I don’t know how it works in the states (I might assume the same way), but in Europe wheelchair passengers and those required assistance are being delivered to a remote stand on a dedicated bus and loaded via read door with a special let’s say elevator (work the same way as catering trucks). That happens prior to a general boarding.

  4. You all deserve credit for seeing the glass half-full on “remote stand” boarding. For my part, to quote George Costanza, “You know we’re living in a society!” Give me the tunnel-vision of a jetway – its smell, its slope, its change in humidity – and that final step over the gap between the accordion cover and onto the plane… LOVE it, every time.

  6. Yes, I’ve used Gate 59 and a remote stand at SFO to fly an AS E175 to SNA. And for years, both AA and UA have required shuttle busses to take passengers from their terminal to a set of remote gates at LAX for (most of) their American Eagle and United Express flights. But what really surprised me was that I just used a remote gate to board an EK A380 at JFK on 9/25!

    That said, I too wonder about ADA compliance . . .

  7. I’ve boarded remotely @ LAX and LHR. At LAX it was nice how they have these jetway type remote stands, but am not sure if they are still being used on a regular basis due to the midfield construction going on.
    It’s definitely not always ideal for everyone to board, or deplane remotely. However when you’re sitting on the tarmac for more than 15 minutes waiting for a jetway gate to open, please take me to a remote stand. I’d rather do that than sit on a hot aircraft, plus as an airline geek, I enjoy the smell of jet fuel and being close to the planes.

  8. Not all PSP flights board via portable stairs on the tarmac @ PSP. Certain airlines use jetways or a combination of both.

  9. Ok for those who are following the developments at SFO, the future plan is to add another small concourse on the north side attached to Boarding Area G for additional International flights, three widebody, or six or seven narrowbody. A secure corridor is planned to paralell BART from where the last gate is. I don’t think the office structure will be removed as the corridor will pass just to the north of it with the gates opposite Area G. This is pictured in the schematic that one can see in SFO’s Terminal 3 West plans.

  11. Remote boarding doesn’t add delays to boarding; boarding starts earlier to accommodate a bus transfer if it is required. Some airlines (Qantas, for example) use both a jetway and stairs at the rear to deplane quickly (Qantas turn around some of their flights in 35 minutes). Personally, I love changing it up and seeing the the airport (and planes) from a different vantage point.

  14. Long Beach (LGB) has no jetways. I flew into/out of LGB recently, and Jet Blue had stairs at both front and back of the aircraft. The two-door boarding/disembarking process seemed faster than a jetway.

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