Estimated time of arrival

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The estimated time of arrival or ETA is a measure of when a vehicle or aircraft in travel, cargo, or emergency services is expected to arrive at a certain place. One of the more common uses is in public transportation where the movements of trains, buses, airplanes and the like can be used to generate estimated times of arrival depending on either a static timetable or through measurements on traffic intensity.

For example, a certain flight may have a calculated ETA based on the speed by which it has covered the distance traveled so far. The distance remaining is divided by the speed previously measured to roughly estimate the arrival time. This particular method does not take into account any unexpected events (such as new wind directions) which may occur on the way to the flight's destination.

ETA is also used metaphorically in situations where nothing actually moves physically, as in describing the time estimated for an individual, group, or computer program to finish a certain operation or download.