Correlation of the Airport Data

Correlation of the Airport Data

In this activity you will be performing a correlation analysis of airport flight data to determine whether or not there is a statistical relationship between two variables; the number of enplaned passengers and the number of performed departures. The data was collected from 135 airports across the United States. It consists of the name of the airport, the city, the performed departures, and the number of passengers flying. The name of the airport is included in the data set for reference.

Using the data set in Excel, perform a correlation analysis to see if there is a statistical relationship between the number of enplaned passengers and the number of performed departures. Then create a scatter plot of the two variables to analyze the data graphically.

1. What is the correlation coefficient between the number of enplaned passengers and the number of performed departures?
2. Is the correlation coefficient positive or negative?
3. What does this tell you about the relationship between the two variables?
4. Explain how the scatter plot represents graphically the correlation you found between the enplaned passengers and the number of departures.
5. Perform a follow-up regression analysis to predict the departures of an airport servicing 20,000,000 passengers.

Original work on this document was done by Central Virginia Governor's School students Kristine Salm, Stephanie Thornton and Jon Tucker (Class of '04).