Delta Air Lines shared this week that starting next month, it will change how passengers board their planes, returning to a system that more seasoned fliers will be familiar with.
Starting May 1, the airline will board customers by numbered zones, a change back to the process it used in 2019, before its current boarding process of named categories.
Delta will still have the same boarding order, but instead of using the categories, they will be called “zones” and be numbered 1 through 8.
Now, instead of the categories “Pre-Boarding” and “First Class,” there will be zone 1. The “Comfort+” category will be in zone 3, “Main Cabin” groups will be in either 5, 6, or 7, and “Basic Economy” will be in zone 8.
The airline said it is doing away with its current system and returning to the old one so it can “provide customers with more clarity” about the boarding process. The new system will be rolled out on all Delta flights.
Delta changed to its current system five years ago to bring “consistency, simplicity, and clarity to the gate and boarding experience.”
At that time, the airline also introduced colors on gate screens and electronic boarding passes to help with identifying the zone that is boarding, something the airline plans on keeping in place.
“Zone boarding, an aviation standard for decades, will soon be a thing of the past for Delta customers,” the airline said in a 2018 release.
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It also said that the number of groups is specific to “encourage fewer customers to line up in the gate area at any one time.”
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