Connectivity of the European air transport network during the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

The global Covid-19 pandemic has had a great impact on the air transport network (ATN) and on aviation in general. April 2020 saw the largest decline in connectivity, with an average drop of more than 80% compared to 2019. This paper investigates this decline in terms of centrality measures. To capture the first wave of the pandemic, i.e., the largest decline followed by a partial increase, 40 weeks were examined. The selection of the 24 European airports was made. This selection was used to describe the European ATN generated by the operations of the selected airports. The methodology of this selection is presented in this work. A methodology based on statistical methods and graph theory was used to evaluate the data. Based on the analysis, 6 airports with a different development of weighted centrality values were found. The development of values of these 6 airports differed from the other airports and these airports also differed from each other. This paper is describing development of the ATN centrality in context with operations and connectivity between airports.