Boarding time has doubled over the last decades, according to research by Boeing. It now takes 30 to 40 minutes to board approximately 140 passengers on a US domestic flight, up from around 15 minutes in the 1970s.

Spirit Airlines started charging $20 to $40 per carry-on bag. Since it is $2 cheaper to check a bag, more passengers check their bags, and Spirit claims its “stress-free boarding” saves six minutes on average. Another approach is used by Southwest, which says it can board its planes in around 15 minutes. It says the root of the delays is the practice of assigning seat numbers. Southwest’s passengers are instead assigned to one of three boarding groups and then given a number based on the time they checked in.

A few years ago, Jason H. Steffen, an astrophysicist at Fermilab in Chicago tried to solve this problem with a “Markov chain Monte Carlo optimisation algorithm.” In computing, a Monte Carlo algorithm is a randomised algorithm whose running time is deterministic but whose output may be incorrect with a certain (typically small) probability.

Much to Mr Steffen’s surprise, he found that the common back-to-front method of boarding was amongst the slowest methods: passengers must wait for those ahead of them to stow their bags and sit down. It is far better, it turns out, to let passengers board randomly.

Tips:

1. Always drink tea during or after a meal. Our stomachs contain acid, and tea is an alkaline. The combination gives you a bloated stomach. If you like strong tea, it is best to drink 3 hours after meal.
2. Quality tea should be fragrant except pu-erh which is odourless.
3. White tea is good for the lungs and throat. A cup of white peony tea helps to clear phlegm and cures coughs.
4. Genuine screw shaped green tea is the highest grade of green tea. These teas are produced in limited quantities. Although highly-priced, screw shaped green tea has a very distinctive taste and is not to everyone’s liking.
5. Greasy food is best paired with black tea like pu-erh; hence, it is the most popular tea to go with Dim-Sum or with mooncakes. This tea helps to flush all the grease out of our systems. It aids digestion, blood circulation and lowers cholesterol levels. It can also work as a cleaning agent for your dishes if you ever run out of washing up liquid!