Taxi-delays: The use of distance as a reference for the unimpeded taxi-time

摘要

Current airport taxi delay estimations in Europe are based on a reference value computed statistically from a sample gathered from the airport itself from previous year's observations. The taxi-out delay is computed as the difference between the actual taxi-out time and a reference taxi-out time. Currently, the industry defines the reference value for the unimpeded taxi-out time as the 20 percentile of observations. The same procedure is applied to taxi-in delays, with its corresponding data. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new perspective in the calculation of taxi delays based on the distance between gates and runways, and gate utilization. This number is then compared to the unimpeded reference taxi-time. The justification for proposing this approach is to investigate the possibility to use a different basis for both the unimpeded taxi time and the actual taxi-time. Since both metrics are calculated based on the same statistical sample, it is possible to question if the result reflects reality. Initial results tend to show that the new reference taxi-out time is pretty much equal to the 20 percentile used in the industry for a medium sized airport with low levels of congestion. These results are promising in the attempt to approach a more realistic and accurate perspective in the estimation of delays. The findings will potentially benefit to airports and airlines, and might allow the industry to improve current computations.