Analysis of airport network in Pakistan utilizing complex network approach

Abstract

Field of complex network covers different social, technological, biological, scientific collaborative work, communication networks and many others. Among these networks, transportation network is an important indicator to measure the economic growth in any country. In this study different dynamics of Airport Network in Pakistan are analyzed by the complex network methodology. Dataset of air transportation has been collected from Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan (CAA) and formatted to accomplish the complex network requirements. The network is formed to observe its different properties and compare these with their topological counterparts. In this, network nodes are represented by Airports of Pakistan while flights between them within a week are considered as edges. The behavior of degree distribution is observed as preferential attachment of nodes, which represented that few nodes are controlling overall network which emphasizes that Airport Network in Pakistan (ANP) follows power law. Clustering coefficient displayed the network as a clustered network. Result of short average path length highlights that Airport Network in Pakistan is small-world network. Study also signified the average nearest neighbour degree node, which explained that ANP exhibited disassortative mixing in nature which states that high degree nodes (airports) tend to connect to low degree nodes (airports). Interestingly, is has been observed that it is not necessary that the most connected node is also the most central node in degree centralities.