Flying is one of those strange times where you just have to go with the flow and do it like everyone else. So you say Your liquids in a small separate bagmake one Spontaneous whiskey purchase at 5am. And always board your plane on the left side. Wait a minute, you’re right, you always board your flight on the left side. Have you ever wondered why that might be?
Well, dear reader, I’m here to tell you exactly why that might be. And like most things in life, everything here goes back to the good old traditions.
To be honest, it never really occurred to me that we always board planes on the left side until last week when I was sitting with a buddy at a suitably hip craft brewery. They indicated that they would do it always just boarded airplanes on the left, to a barrage of “Oh yeah, I never thought of that” from our assembled group. It turns out we were far from the first to ask this question, as the topic only recently came up on social media.
According to several users, the tradition of boarding planes on the left goes back to our time when we traveled around the world on ships and ocean liners. As British outlet UniLad explained:
You’re probably already familiar with the terminology of port and starboard on a ship, right?
Starboard refers to the right side of a ship facing the front of the ship, while port is the left side.
The word “starboard” actually comes from Anglo-Saxon, where words were often put together to describe something.
“Starboard” is actually a combination of the Old English word stéor (to steer) and bord (side of the boat), as the rudder was located on the right side of the ship.
This meant that it was easier for the left side, the “port side”, to be the side where a ship docked and where any passengers disembarked and cargo was unloaded.
This is precisely why the left side of a ship was called the “port side,” since it was the side that touched the harbor. The name stuck in the shipping industry for generations, so when the time came Embark on a ship of the skythe terminology remained largely the same.
That’s what that meant The port side of an aircraft was preserved the side touching the port side. But in this case, the harbor is no longer a rickety wooden walkway, but a swank airport bridge or a staircase on wheels. And because we had always boarded our ships on the port side, we continued to board the planes from the port side.
So there you have it. We board planes on the left side because getting on and off the left side of a ship was easiest. The more you know.