Research on the classification of regional airports in China based on cluster analysis

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The number of regional airports in China is large and widely distributed. The construction of regional airports has received attention, but there is a lack of research to explore their classification. Taking 182 airports with passenger throughput less than three million (inclusive) nationwide in 2019 as the research object, six indicators within and outside the civil aviation industry were statistically investigated. By using factor analysis, the values of the categories were determined between three, four, five and the corresponding components were extracted, and the clustering method was used to analyze all samples by clustering three, clustering four, and clustering five. The results were calculated with the contour coefficients of 0.90, 0.96, and 0.92, respectively, and it was determined that the clustering effect of clustering four categories was better. The national regional airports were divided into four categories: the extracted components corresponding to the first category of airports were total tourism income, the extracted components corresponding to the second category of airports were urban population and gross regional product, the extracted components corresponding to the third category of airports were takeoff and landing movements, and the extracted components corresponding to the fourth category of airports were airport passenger throughput and airport cargo and mail throughput. The extraction components and geographical location of the four types of airports are studied, and the characteristics of each type of airports are summarized, so as to pave the way for future research on the planning and overall layout of regional airports.