journal article·2024-06-24Open access

Predictive Modeling of Flight Delays at an Airport Using Machine Learning Methods

Irmak Hatıpoğlu, Ömür Tosun

Applied Sciences· Volume 14· Issue 13

Abstract

Flight delays represent a significant challenge in the global aviation industry, resulting in substantial costs and a decline in passenger satisfaction. This study addresses the critical issue of predicting flight delays exceeding 15 min using machine learning techniques. The arrival delays at a Turkish airport are analyzed utilizing a novel dataset derived from airport operations. This research examines a range of machine learning models, including Logistic Regression, Naïve Bayes, Neural Networks, Random Forest, XGBoost, CatBoost, and LightGBM. To address the issue of imbalanced data, additional experiments are conducted using the Synthetic Minority Over-Sampling Technique (SMOTE), in conjunction with the incorporation of meteorological data. This multi-faceted approach ensures robust forecast performance under varying conditions. The SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) method is employed to interpret the relative importance of features within the models. The study is based on a three-year period of flight data obtained from a Turkish airport. The dataset is sufficiently extensive and robust to provide a reliable foundation for analysis. The results indicate that XGBoost is the most proficient model for the dataset, demonstrating its potential to deliver highly accurate predictions with an accuracy of 80%. The impact of weather factors on the predictions is found to be insignificant in comparison to scenarios without weather data in this dataset.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Air Traffic Management and Optimization · Aviation Industry Analysis and Trends · Aerospace and Aviation Technology

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Department of International Trade and Logistics, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Akdeniz University, Antalya 07070, Turkey

Department of Management Information Systems, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Akdeniz University, Antalya 07070, Turkey

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