NYC Flights HW - a Closer look into NY flights landing in the DMV airports in 2013

library(tidyverse)

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library(nycflights13)
data(flights)

Filter the data to show only flights going to DC, Maryland, and Virginia major airports (IAD, BWI, and DCA) in the Summer months (June, July, August)

DMV_flights <- flights %>%
  filter(dest == "IAD" | dest == "BWI" | dest == "DCA") %>%
  filter (month == "6" | month == "7" | month == "8")

Graph 1: Bar graph showing arrival delays for flights from NY to DC, Marylan, Virginia in the Summer months

Graph1 <- DMV_flights %>%
  ggplot() +
  geom_bar(aes(x=month, y=arr_delay, fill = dest),
      position = "dodge", stat = "identity",  alpha = .2) +
  ggtitle("Arrival delays for flights from NY to DC, Maryland, Virgninia") +
  xlab("Month") + 
  ylab("Arrival Delays") + 
  labs(fill = "Airport")
Graph1

## Warning: Removed 296 rows containing missing values (`geom_bar()`).

Bar Graph 2: Arrival delays split up by day

Graph2 <- DMV_flights %>%
  ggplot() +
  geom_bar(aes(x=month, y=arr_delay, fill = dest),
      position = "dodge2", stat = "identity",  alpha = 1) +
  ggtitle("Arrival delays for flights from NY to DC, Maryland, Virgninia") +
  xlab("Month") + 
  ylab("Arrival Delays") + 
  labs(fill = "Airport")
Graph2

## Warning: Removed 296 rows containing missing values (`geom_bar()`).

Graph 3: Departure Delays in Facet Wrap

Graph3 <- DMV_flights %>% 
  tidyr::gather("dest", "dep_delay", 3:10) 

Graph3 <- DMV_flights %>% 
  ggplot(., aes(day, dep_delay))+
  geom_point()+
  aes(color = dest)+
  ggtitle("Departure Delays for Flights from NY to DC, Maryland, Virgninia") +
  xlab("Day") + 
  ylab("Departure Delay") + 
  facet_wrap(~dest)
Graph3

## Warning: Removed 278 rows containing missing values (`geom_point()`).

Essay

One of the many perks of living in the DMV metro area is having access to 3 different airports. I like to travel and I do so a lot so I wanted to find out the delays of the flights going to the major airports in DC, Maryland, and Virginia; especially in the Summer months where most people also travel. The results are not surprising. Dulles Airport (IAD) - despite being the biggest, has the highest and most frequent delays. This is “understandable” to a certain extent because they are a major hub of flights both domestic and international. Reagan Airport (DCA) is next on the list with more delays compared to BWI. DCA is a pretty small airport so one delay can have a domino effect on other flights. Lastly, Thurgood-Marshall Airport (BWI) shows the least delays, however, they also have the least number of flights coming in from NY. On the bright side, there are a decent number of flights that arrive early as well - not that that makes up for the delays, but the passengers on those flights, I’m sure, were happy!

As for the Summer months, drawing a conclusion from these graphs, if I were to travel to and from NY during the summer months, I would consider:

1. Flying out of and into BWI

2. Traveling in June

3. Or sticking with taking the train!

However, this data set is from 2013 which is 10 years ago. I would be curious to see how things are now, I bet (hope) it is much better!