Airport transfer dependency on neighbour hubs – The case of Taoyuan Airport's aviation network

Abstract

Asian airports are keen to develop into hubs to strengthen their respective positions in the region. When a hub airport launches more routes and increases flight frequencies, its neighbouring airports might be affected by depending on them for transfers to additional destinations. To analyse the situation in Asia, this paper develops two composite indexes referred to as the Airport Transfer Dependency Index (ATDI) and Airport Transfer Dependency Degree (ATDD) based on the Gini coefficient and Hub Connectivity Performance Index (HCPI) to measure an airport's transfer dependency on other airports. The analysis focuses on the case of Taiwan's Taoyuan Airport's dependency on its neighbouring hubs for destinations to North America (NA), Europe (EU), the Middle East (ME), Africa (AF) and Oceania (OC). The results reveal that Taoyuan Airport has significant transfer dependency on Tokyo's Narita Airport for North America (NA) routes and on Hong Kong Airport for the other long-haul routes. The analysis presented in this paper could help airport authorities strengthen their weak connectivity on certain routes in order to reduce their dependence on neighbouring hubs.