Deciphering Air Travel Disruptions: A Machine Learning Approach

Abstract: This research investigates flight delay trends by examining factors such as departure time, airline, and airport. It employs regression machine learning methods to predict the contributions of various sources to delays. Time-series models, including LSTM, Hybrid LSTM, and Bi-LSTM, are compared with baseline regression models such as Multiple Regression, Decision Tree Regression, Random Forest Regression, and Neural Network. Despite considerable errors in the baseline models, the study aims to identify influential features in delay prediction, potentially informing flight planning strategies. Unlike previous work, this research focuses on regression tasks and explores the use of time-series models for predicting flight delays. It offers insights into aviation operations by independently analyzing each delay component (e.g., security, weather).