Why airplanes always board from the left side: A historical explanation

Many travelers have surely wondered why we always board an airplane from the left side. Dougie Sharpe, popular on TikTok as the "fact guy," shared the historical reason for this practice, which has its roots in naval history.

Sharpe explains that even ancient people loaded and unloaded both goods and passengers from the left side of ships. It was logistically convenient and allowed ships worldwide to use the same side in commercial ports, facilitating port infrastructure construction.

Because of this, the ship's left side was named the "port side," while the right side was called "starboard."

When humanity transitioned from boats to airplanes, engineers decided to maintain this tradition. Every airport and airplane was designed so that passengers always board from the left side of the aircraft.

Michael Oakley, editor-in-chief of "The Aviation Historian," also explained this issue in an interview with AFAR Media. He noted that much of aviation terminology originated from maritime traditions (e.g., rudder, cockpit, cabin, knots). Aviation also adopted the boarding method from the left side, analogous to the port side of a ship.

Comments under Sharpe's TikTok video add additional information, such as the origin of the term "starboard" from steering, which refers to the right side of ships.

"The starboard side comes from Viking 'steering' – the rudder was always on the right side, so unloading was done on the left to prevent the rudder from being damaged," explained the commenters.

“And can you explain why we decide to load airplanes from front to back instead of back to front, which causes the travel time to increase by an hour?” — asked one of the commenters.