suffix
honorific plural suffix; ladies and gentlemen
Honorific pluralizing suffix attached to nouns referring to people, such as 先生方 (teachers) or お客様方 (guests). Used in formal and respectful contexts.
先生方、本日はお忙しい中お集まりいただきありがとうございます。
Teachers, thank you for gathering today despite your busy schedules.
お客様方のご意見をお聞かせください。
Please let us hear the opinions of our guests.
suffix
Suffix attached to time expressions to indicate approximation, similar to 頃 (ころ). The reading かた is also used in this sense, but がた is more common in modern Japanese.
明日の夕方、五時方にお伺いします。
I will visit around five o'clock tomorrow evening.
来月の初め方にまたご連絡します。
I will contact you again around the beginning of next month.
ら is a casual plural suffix, sometimes used for people, while がた is strictly honorific.
頃 is a more common suffix for approximate time, while 方 (がた) is slightly more formal and less frequent.
Derived from the noun 方 (かた, 'direction/person'), with a sound change to がた when used as a suffix. The temporal sense likely developed from the idea of 'direction' in time.