Identifying alternative airports in weighted air transport networks

Abstract

We propose a framework for identifying alternative airports and analyzing backup characteristics in weighted air transport networks. We compare our method with an unweighted network method to clarify its usefulness. The proposed framework enables a quantitative assessment of the impact of one airport’s closure on the entire air transport network. Specifically, we construct and analyze a directed and weighted network based on the backup characteristics of airports handling diverted traffic for a given airport closure. We apply the proposed framework to the Japanese domestic air transport network on a monthly basis from 2012 to 2021. Our results reveal heterogeneous and unidirectional alternative relations among airports, which cannot be identified by the existing method for unweighted networks. Further, our investigation reveals that the evolution of backup traffic loads of the Japanese domestic air transport can be classified into three periods according to the characteristics of major alternative airports.