What is the best time to fly from JFK airport to BOS?
Flight delays are one of the most frustrating aspects of airline travel (well, one of many). Travelers can do little to avoid flight delays; travelers usually cannot choose where they need to travel to, or where they need to travel from. However, travelers can choose when they travel.
This study will examine the correlation between departure time, the time a flight is scheduled to depart, and arrival delay, the amount of time that passes between when a plane is scheduled to arrive and when it actually arrives. Travelers can use this information to mitigate the expected delay associated with their flight.
We will examine all flights that originated from a New York City airport in 2013. The data is provided by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) and is available for download from http://www.transtats.bts.gov/DL_SelectFields.asp?Table_ID=236.
The table below lists the mean arrival delay by hour.
The expected delay fluctuates throughout the day. Here the delay is described by a smooth curve fitted to the data.
The best time to fly from JFK airport to BOS is the hour immediately after 5:00 am.