Get rid of hand luggage, it will speed everything up!

Couldn’t agree more! The future of air travel will be passengers taking their own baggage to the plane 🙂

As we know, airlines strive for on-time performance and yet each individual airline has their own unique way/process of boarding their aircraft […] I would like to know whether or not there is any such thing as a “best” or most recommended way for boarding an aircraft.

Indeed, there must be a better way! There was a study done fairly recently into just that. The alternative you are looking for might be “Steffen” method. Check it out here: http://www.airport-int.com/news/tests-reveal-most-efficient-boarding-method.html

Personally, I just take the first seat available 🙂 but that’s easy for me to say as a young guy who usually travels alone