Networks for Flight Delay Analysis: A Scoping Review and Research Agenda

Flight delay is one of the most severe problems faced by the aviation industry, and its excessive impact on air transport operations and society has attracted wide attention by researchers. Due to the structural nature of air transportation and the intrinsic dependencies between system components, many studies on flight delays have used concepts from network science and related subjects to better understand the principles and dynamics underlying flight delay. This paper provides a comprehensive review by analyzing extant studies on the exploration of aviation delay based on network models. Our review covers various aspects, including the type of network models, main methodologies, and algorithms, as well as the major findings of existing studies and their managerial / policy-related insights. Finally, we discuss the potential development trends and provide explicit guidance for future related studies, with the goal to promote informed research on air transportation delay - taking into account the full state-of-the-art in the extant literature.