Factors influencing flight delays of a European airline

Abstract

The main aim of the paper was to investigate factors influencing flight delays of a European airline. Besides the identification and analysis of those factors the paper offers possible suggestions on how to eliminate the delays. The research is based on data acquired over the period of time spanning from June to September in 2008 - 2014. Analysis of contingency tables, including Pearson's chi-squared test, has been used for data processing. The dependencies have been presented in graphical form by using correspondence maps. The proportion of delayed flights reaches approx. 50 % during nearly the entire monitored period only in September the proportion drops to 45 %. Flight delays are most frequently caused by delays of previous flights of the same plane. These previous delayed flights are the main culprit of long delays and the frequency of delay occurrence caused by this reason increases significantly during the day. Longer delays of flights appear also due to technical maintenance or aircraft defects. On the contrary other factors such as operational control and crew duty norms, air traffic control and airport limitations tend to cause rather shorter delays of flights with the air traffic control encountering more problems with coordination of flights in the early morning. The supply and service companies also manage to eliminate long delays.