Spanish Airport Network Structure: Topological Characterization

Abstract

Applied complex network theory has become an interesting research field in the last years. Many papers have appeared on this subject dealing with the topological description of real transport systems, from small networks like the Italian airport network to the worldwide air transportation network. A comprehensive topological description of those critical structures is relevant in order to understand their dynamics, capacities, and vulnerabilities. In this work, for the first time, we describe the Spanish airport network (SAN) as a complex network. Nodes are airports, and links are flight connections weighed by traffic flow. We study its topological features and traffic dynamics. Our analysis shows that SAN has complex dynamics similar to small-size air transportation networks of other developed economies. It shares properties of small-world and scale-free networks, and it is highly connected and efficient and has a disassortative pattern for high-degree nodes.