A widebody Boeing 777 boarding via mobile stairs at Rome Fiumicino (LIRF) for an Air Canada flight to Montreal is an unusual enough sight that it prompted the original poster to share the clip and ask whether the practice is rare. For most passengers and casual observers, jet bridges are the default expectation for any large twin-aisle aircraft, so watching travelers climb airstairs to board a 777 stands out. In reality, the practice is not as rare as it might seem, but it is far less common for long-haul widebody operations than for regional jets or narrowbody aircraft, which explains the surprise factor captured in the video.
There are several operational reasons an airport as large as Fiumicino might resort to stair boarding for a widebody aircraft. Gate congestion is the most common culprit: LIRF handles a dense mix of long-haul and short-haul traffic, and when contact gates are full or a jet bridge-equipped stand is unavailable due to schedule bunching, aircraft are parked on remote stands and passengers are bused or walked out to the aircraft, using integrated airstairs or mobile staircases instead of jet bridges. Mechanical issues with a jet bridge, last-minute gate reassignments, or an aircraft swap onto a tail not typically slated for that route can also force ground handlers to use stairs. For carriers like Air Canada operating long-haul widebody service into a foreign hub, the ground handling contractor and airport authority—not the airline itself—typically control gate assignment and stand allocation, meaning the flight crew and airline often have limited say in whether the boarding process happens via bridge or stairs.
For working pilots, this kind of scenario is a familiar reminder that flight operations do not end at top of climb or touchdown—ground handling variability is part of the job at foreign stations, particularly at busy European hubs with mixed narrowbody/widebody traffic and constrained gate infrastructure. Crews operating into airports like Fiumicino need to be prepared for remote stands, bus transfers, and stair boarding/deboarding, which affects boarding times, turn times, and connections with ground crew for catering, cargo, and fueling. It also has operational implications for accessibility and mobility-impaired passengers, who require lift equipment when stairs are used instead of jet bridges, adding coordination complexity and potential delay for ground staff and gate agents. Dispatchers and schedulers factoring in minimum ground times at outstations should account for the possibility of non-jet-bridge boarding, especially during peak summer season when Mediterranean airports like LIRF see significant volume increases from tourist traffic.
More broadly, this incident touches on a persistent theme in commercial aviation: infrastructure capacity has not always kept pace with fleet and traffic growth at legacy hub airports, particularly in Europe. Airports built or expanded decades ago often lack sufficient contact gates for the current mix of aircraft types and frequencies, forcing airlines and ground handlers to improvise with remote stands and stair boarding even for long-haul widebody equipment. This is not unique to Fiumicino; similar scenes play out at hubs from Madrid to Athens to various Asian and Latin American gateways during peak periods. For pilots and operators, it underscores the importance of understanding station-specific ground handling procedures, maintaining flexibility in turnaround planning, and recognizing that even a modern, well-established hub airport can occasionally require decidedly old-school passenger boarding methods for the newest widebody jets.