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Aircraft routing clusters and their impact on airline delays

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  • Lonzius, Christopher
  • Lange, Anne

Abstract

Airlines operate thousands of aircraft routings every day with a multitude of options to connect single flights integrated in a routing. Since airline delays entail significant costs for airlines and to societies, we aim to identify how far individual aircraft routings differ in on-time performance. We apply a novel approach to cluster aircraft routings and compute the routing strength to quantify the structure of aircraft routings. We then develop an econometric model to analyze the impact different routing clusters have on airline delays. As a key finding, routings with higher strengths tend to cause more delays. Our clustering of routings shows that hybrid routing structures and intense shuttling of flights between a few airports in a routing increases delays compared to routings structured star- or string-like. We also find major differences across airlines in the way routings are structured.

Suggested Citation

  • Lonzius, Christopher & Lange, Anne, 2024. "Aircraft routing clusters and their impact on airline delays," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jaitra:v:114:y:2024:i:c:s0969699723001369
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2023.102493
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