VFDP: Visual Analysis of Flight Delay and Propagation on a Geographical Map

The propagation of flight delays is challenging to analyze because delay events depend on multiple variables. This phenomenon has become even worse with the increasing number of aircraft in China, and research into delay propagation has shown limited progress. In this paper, we design a visual analysis system for flight delay propagation. Unlike conventional flight delay research, this work focuses on the flight delay propagation trends in one region and representing the relationship of delays occurring in multiple airports. First, we construct a Bayesian network to analyze the delay parameters and select delay factors for visualization. Second, the system employs a series of visualization methods to present the propagation of flight delays, including density and flow visualizations. Third, the system combines multiple available visual representations for analyzing flight delays from different aspects. We demonstrate our methods with real data in multiple types of cases, and we evaluate our visual design through user studies. The results help identify several benefits of our system and confirm its usefulness for delay propagation analysis.