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Supporting case study · Data Visualization

Airline Delay Storytelling and Operational Analysis

Used Excel pivots, storyboarding, and a narrated presentation to examine delay patterns by month, continent, pilot, and airport.

ExcelPivot TablesData StorytellingStoryboard DesignOperational Analysis
Airline Delay Storytelling and Operational Analysis project graphic
1 yeardataset scope
4analysis views
Excelpivot workflow
Storyboardcommunication method
The challenge

What needed to be understood.

The dataset contained passenger and flight details but no direct delay-cause field. The analysis therefore needed to identify patterns without turning correlation into an unsupported causal explanation.

Approach

How the analysis was built.

  1. Created a month field and summarized delays by month.
  2. Compared delays across continents, pilots, airports, and total flight volume.
  3. Used pivots, conditional formatting, and charts to surface concentrations.
  4. Built a storyboard that connected questions, analysis, findings, recommendations, and limitations.
Key findings

What the evidence showed.

  • North America recorded the most delays in the submitted analysis.
  • Monthly delays were comparatively spread out, providing little evidence of one dominant seasonal pattern.
  • Pilot-specific differences were limited within the one-year dataset.
  • California airports appeared repeatedly among high-delay locations, while also handling high flight volumes.
Business recommendations

What should happen next.

  • Investigate airport congestion and operational processes in the California locations highlighted by the analysis.
  • Add weather, maintenance, staffing, and reason-code data before attributing causes.
  • Normalize delay counts by flight volume and compare delay duration, not only frequency.
Limitations and integrity

What this project does—and does not—prove.

The dataset covered a limited period and omitted explicit delay causes, so the findings are exploratory rather than causal.

Continue exploring

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