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A reasonable boarding model can effectively improve the boarding efficiency. Therefore, developing boarding models/strategies to improve the boarding efficiency has been an interesting topic in the air transportation. In this paper, we incorporate the group behavior and the quantity of luggage into the boarding process, and then develop an extended boarding model to investigate the effects of the two factors on the delay time and boarding time. The numerical results show that the quantity of luggage may make each passenger’s boarding behavior more complex, while the group behavior can shorten some passengers’ delay time and the total boarding time. The results can help administrators organize the boarding process and enhance the boarding efficiency.

The rapid increase of civil aviation has posed a great challenge to air traffic (especially aircraft boarding). In this study, we propose a new aircraft boarding model to explore the impacts of group behavior on each passenger's motion, seat conflict, check-in time, time of handling luggage as well as boarding time during the boarding process. The numerical results show that the group behavior has some positive impacts on the boarding efficiency, and that the impacts become more prominent with an increasing number of groups. Hence, the group behavior should be encouraged to enhance the efficiency during the boarding process.