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As any frequent traveller knows, the time taken in boarding and disembarking from a flight generally seems the most frustrating and pointlessly time-consuming part of the whole journey. As of this week, American Airlines has launched a new boarding process, in which there are nine categories of passengers all asked to board in turn. The ninth category are, naturally, those using the new basic economy ultra-cheap fares. It's supposed to be a quicker and more efficient boarding system, but is it? The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s Roger Hearing spoke to Dr Jason Steffen of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Nevada, who has made a study of the mathematics of plane boarding.