Flight delays due to air pollution in China

Using a newly-compiled dataset of airport traffic, air pollution, and weather from 2015 to 2017, we evaluate the effect of PM2.5 pollution levels on flight departure delays in China. We instrument for PM2.5 levels using changes in atmospheric thermal inversions and wind direction. We find that a one-standard-deviation increase in the daily PM2.5 concentration levels leads to roughly 4.5–6.4 additional minutes in departure delays per flight. We estimate that reductions in China's PM2.5 pollution levels due to the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan avoided 13–18% of the increases in national average flight delays and saved US $54 to $69 million in passenger time in 2017 alone.