Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
into delivery optimization, where increased efficiency can have a significant
impact on profitability.
Passenger airlines form one of the most universally relevant transportation
networks for businesses that operate nationally or internationally. If you fly
frequently for work, you probably have travel efficiency down to a science,
minimizing time wasted waiting for departures, connections, security,
luggage, and ground transportation. Contending with delays, missed
connections, and canceled flights is not only extremely frustrating, but it
is exceedingly costly. A 2010 study led by researchers at the University of
California, Berkeley, put the estimated annual cost of flight delays to U.S.
passengers at more than $16 billion, with an additional $4 billion impact
on the GDP. For the business traveler, “time is money,” and for a high-level
company executive, that time can be worth a lot.
As a frequent traveler, you will likely have formed opinions about the
reliability of certain airlines and flights based on personal experience, which
have since informed your flight preferences. Typically, little other
consideration is given to the likelihood of travel delays when planning
flights. In reality, however, these delays tend to form patterns, and factoring
patterns into the choice of a flight route (the same way you would for your
drive to work) can further maximize the chances of a smooth flight.
This example takes you through the exercise of examining patterns in flight
delays across the United States using another data set from the Bureau
of Transportation Statistics (BTS). A single month of BTS on-time
performance data was combined with aviation support tables and
subsequently aggregated in Excel using pivot tables.
The data collected and combined includes the number of flights between
each origin and destination and the average delay in arrival. These will form
links in the graph between each airport node.
Origin,Destination,Flights,Avg Arrival Delay (min)
BOI,SUN,1,0
SFO,SUN,20,14
SLC,SUN,137,19
ATL,SAT,332,9
BNA,SAT,57,15
...
