To the first part, as far as I know, all major airports are already "in resedent, as are all regional airports and a fair number of private strips. You'd be hard pressed to find an airport *not* in resident.
to the second question, when you choose your airport, there's a drop-down on your lower right that will give you options, such as "active runway", and "parking ramp" and so on, if theyare available at the airport. I don't know the particulars about the passengers getting on, but IIRC you can summon the jetway with a "Ctrl + J".
Fr the cold dark cockpit, get your aircraft to the spot you want, shut down the engines, turn off everything, and turn the main power, however it's labled, then press the ";" key, and you will get a pop-up asking you to name the flight, and at the bottom right is a box to check if you want to make that your default flight", put a check mark ther, and from then on, you will start with a cold dead cockpit. At least, that's my understanding. Personally, I'm a "boot and skoot" kind of guy.
