Rationale

The choice of predicting taxi-out time for this year’s Data Challenge builds on previous challenges, which have focused on using data to better understand environmental and operational impacts.

Taxi-out time is particularly interesting because it is often difficult to obtain and challenging to predict accurately.

A model to estimate taxi-out time can be used in post-operations analysis to identify constrained operations intervals and measure excess fuel burnt/CO2 production compared to unconstrained status.

The reasons for variability of taxi-out time are various and interlinked. These include airline-specific constraints, airport procedures and load, and Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM)-related reasons.

List of Acronyms

ATFM: Air Traffic Flow Management