Impact of entry restriction policies on international air transport connectivity during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously impacted the air transport network (ATN) globally. Policies to restrict international passenger arrivals adopted by many countries are effective responses to control the spread of the virus. This paper studies the impact of two entry restriction policies implemented by some countries against international travelers during COVID-19, i.e., direct flight suspension and complete entry suspension, on the international connectivity (IC) of ATNs. Firstly, the concept of international air transport network (IATN) is defined, and a novel weighted IC index for ATNs is proposed considering flight frequency. Furthermore, to systematically analyze the difference between two policies, the hierarchical structure of the IATN is investigated, followed by studying the change of the IC index assuming different countries impose the two policies. Taking China as an example, this paper evaluates the influence of two policies based on real policy implementation of some countries against travelers from China. Besides, the critical countries affecting the IC are identified, and the network robustness is assessed. Implications for assessing and ranking the impact of different countries under different policies are provided and discussed. Lastly, two extensions are presented to discuss the impact of partial suspension and response actions such as air travel bubble. This work is one of the first to study the impact of country-to-country disconnection on air transport connectivity and deepens our understanding of the performance of ATNs during emergencies.