Estimation of aircraft taxi fuel burn using flight data recorder archives

This paper builds a model for estimating the fuel consumption of a taxiing aircraft using flight data recorder information from operational aircraft. The taxi fuel burn is modeled as a linear function of several potential explanatory variables including the taxi time, number of stops, number of turns and number of acceleration events, and the coefficients are estimated using least-squares regression. The statistical significance of each potential factor is investigated. Our analysis shows that in addition to the taxi time, the number of acceleration events is a significant factor in determining taxi fuel consumption. Since the model parameters are estimated using data from operational aircraft, they provide more accurate estimates of fuel burn than methods that use idealized physical models of fuel consumption based on aircraft velocity profiles, or the baseline fuel consumption estimates provided by the International Civil Aviation Organization.

► The paper develops a linear model to estimate the fuel burn of taxiing flights using flight data recorder archives.
► Taxi time and the number of acceleration events are significant factors in determining taxi fuel consumption.
► Baseline fuel consumption estimates are compared to those of the International Civil Aviation Organization.