Probabilistic Flight Delay Predictions Using Machine Learning and Applications to the Flight-to-Gate Assignment Problem

M. Zoutendijk, M.A. Mitici

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

19 Citations (Scopus)
141 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The problem of flight delay prediction is approached most often by predicting a delay class or value. However, the aviation industry can benefit greatly from probabilistic delay predictions on an individual flight basis, as these give insight into the uncertainty of the delay predictions. Therefore, in this study, two probabilistic forecasting algorithms, Mixture Density Networks and Random Forest regression, are applied to predict flight delays at a European airport. The algorithms estimate well the distribution of arrival and departure flight delays with a Mean Absolute Error of less than 15 min. To illustrate the utility of the estimated delay distributions, we integrate these probabilistic predictions into a probabilistic flight-to-gate assignment problem. The objective of this problem is to increase the robustness of flight-to-gate assignments. Considering probabilistic delay predictions, our proposed flight-to-gate assignment model reduces the number of conflicted aircraft by up to 74% when compared to a deterministic flight-to-gate assignment model. In general, the results illustrate the utility of considering probabilistic forecasting for robust airport operations’ optimization.
Original languageEnglish
Article number152
Number of pages20
JournalAerospace
Volume8
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Keywords

  • probabilistic prediction
  • machine learning
  • flight delay
  • flight-to-gate assignment problem
  • Machine learning
  • Flight delay
  • Probabilistic prediction
  • Flight-to-gate assignment problem

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