Route Dependence of Aircraft Fuel Consumption Rates: An Analysis Based on Trajectory Data

Sustainability in aviation is crucial to address the environmental issues and climate impacts associated with the aviation industry. Moreover, efficient operations are critical affected by increasing air traffic volumes. In this context, analyzing aircraft fuel consumption and efficiency is necessary. In particular, fuel consumption per unit may vary depending on route characteristics, which should be considered when analyzing and assessing aircraft fuel consumption. In this study, aircraft fuel consumption was estimated using trajectory data, and route-dependent differences in fuel consumption were subsequently analyzed. Fuel consumption per unit distance and unit time were calculated for each analyzed route, and the significance of differences between routes was tested using a one-way analysis of variance. A post hoc test was conducted to identify specific differences between routes, along with an effect size analysis. The results indicated that differences in fuel consumption per distance and fuel consumption per time between different routes were both statistically significant. In the detailed analysis, eta-squared was calculated to assess the proportion of total variance in fuel consumption explained by differences among routes. Furthermore, post hoc tests were conducted to identify which route pairs exhibited statistically significant differences in fuel consumption. The results of this study confirm that aircraft fuel consumption characteristics can vary depending on the route. Therefore, route-dependent differences must be considered, and both macroscopic and microscopic assessments at the route level must be performed when assessing aircraft fuel consumption.