Enhancing Flight Delay Predictions Using Network Centrality Measures

Joseph Ajayi, Yao Xu, Lixin Li, Kai Wang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Accurately predicting flight delays remains a significant challenge in the aviation industry due to the complexity and interconnectivity of its operations. The traditional prediction methods often rely on meteorological conditions, such as temperature, humidity, and dew point, as well as flight-specific data like departure and arrival times. However, these predictors frequently fail to capture the nuanced dynamics that lead to delays. This paper introduces network centrality measures as novel predictors to enhance the binary classification of flight arrival delays. Additionally, it emphasizes the use of tree-based ensemble models, specifically random forest, gradient boosting, and CatBoost, which are recognized for their superior ability to model complex relationships compared to single classifiers. Empirical testing shows that incorporating centrality measures improves the models’ average performance, with random forest being the most effective, achieving an accuracy rate of 86.2%, surpassing the baseline by 1.7%.

Original languageEnglish
Article number559
JournalInformation (Switzerland)
Volume15
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2024

Keywords

  • CatBoost
  • flight delay prediction
  • gradient boosting
  • machine learning
  • network centrality
  • random forest

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