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Selecting the appropriate type of aircraft for a set of routes is an important task for

airlines in order to save fuel and reduce CO2 emissions

I. Introduction

Data acquisition: 81 millions of waypoints captured by worldwide ASD-B antennas

Diff (%) = [(WPD / GCD) – 1] x 100

Data analysis – Dimensions & Metrics MetricsFlight phase Total

Climb Cruise Descent Origin-Destin

Avg. GCD 65.54 NM (22.54%) 148.41 NM (51.03%) 76.87 NM (26.43%) 290.81 NM (100%)

Avg. WPD 72.34 NM (22.67%) 150.60 NM (47.20%) 96.15 NM (30.13%) 319.08 NM (100%)

Avg. Diff (%) 10.38% 1.47% 25.09% 12.32%

Standard dev. 4.86% 1.43% 20.46% 5.34%

Equipment

Flights Distribution: Great Circle Distance vs Waypoint Distance

Averages

Big data processing

Flight paths take their biggest deviation in the climb and descent phases — nearly 10% and 25% respectively — compared with the cruise phase (which tends

to be much more predictable). The results also show that phase distances are not linear in respect to total flight distances for trips below 500 nautical miles.

The aircraft models E175 and B75 take more deviation in the climb stage while RJ1H tend to has more deviation in the descent phase. The U.S. flights operated

by AirTran Airways airline and the flights departing from BOS, JFK, MIA and SNA airports tend to have more deviation in the climb stage (>20%).

Future work will link this analysis with an accurate fuel burn estimating model in order to analyze flight networks and their costs.

Acknowledgement: (I) Center for Urban and Regional Analysis and The Ohio State University (II) CAPES (Agency of Brazilian Ministry of Education) –Program Science Without Borders (III) PlaneFinder.net - Live Flight Status Tracker

Aircraft efficiency varies across routes stages.

It is potentially useful to understand how aircraft consume fuel across different flight

distance ranges.

Objective: this work analyzes phase distances of worldwide flights with distance

below 1000 NM.

V. Conclusion

III. Results

Big Data Analysis of Flight Phases Distance Using Multi-Agent SystemsSandro Jerônimo de Almeida, Morton E. O’ Kelly & Ricardo Poley Martins Ferreira

Data collected by feeders of PlaneFinder.net in September 2013

Data filter and transformation: waypoints were transformed in approx. 1 MM flights

38,341 flights are complete (exists at least 1 waypoint at each 20 km in the route)

For each flight the median filter was used to remove noise in waypoints (lat, long, alt).

A Multi-agent system (MAS) was used to reproduce/simulate the complete flights

The MAS adopts a flight phases classification algorithm based on ICAO standards

For each flight phase were computed the great circle distance (GCD) and the sum

of the distances between the waypoints of the route (WPD)

Dimension 1: climb (ascent), cruise and descent flight phases

Dimension 2: distance rate, equipment model and U.S. airline and airports

Metrics: GCD, WPD and the percentage difference between GDC and WPD (Diff %)

II. Methodology

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Great Circle Distance (NM)

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Total Trip Distance (NM)

Flight Phase Distance

Taxi out + Take Off + Climb Cruise Descent + Landing + Taxi in

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Total Trip Distance (NM)

Taxi out + Take off + Climb Cruise Descent + Landing + Taxi out Total

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Taxi out + Take off + Climb Cruise Descent +Landing + Taxi in

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AUS BOS BWI DCA DEN DFW FLL IAH JFK LAS LAX LGA LGB MCO MIA OAK ORD SAN SFO SLC SMF SNA

Dif

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(%

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0%

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AirTranAirways

AmericanAirlines

Delta AirLines

FrontierAirlines

JetBlueAirways

SouthwestAirlines

Spirit Airlines UnitedAirlines

United ParcelService

VirginAmerica

WestJet

Dif

fere

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(%

) G

CD

an

d W

PD

A306

A318A319

A320A321

A388

AT76

B733

B734B735

B736 B737B738

B739

B752B753

B763B788

E175

E190

E195

F100

F70

RJ1H

RJ85

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

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60.00%

70.00%

0.00% 5.00% 10.00% 15.00% 20.00% 25.00%

Dif

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) o

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Stag

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Difference (%) on Climb Stage

Difference (%) between GCD and WPD on climb and descent phases

Deviation:

U.S. Airports and Airlines

Flights Phase Distance vs Total Trip Distance Diff (%) between GCD and WPD vs Total Trip Distance