Structural Analyses of Chinese Passenger Airline Network from the Perspective of Multi-layer Networks

Abstract

By utilizing the theory of complex network, we investigate the structural features of China’s passenger ATNs (Air Transport Networks) from the perspective of multi-layer networks. The results indicate that with the superposition of the ATNs of four major airline groups, the aggregated ATNs will gradually present the features of high clustering coefficient, short average path length and high average degree. We also find that when the number of node classes in the aggregation ATNs changes, the variation range of the structural properties of the aggregate ATNs exhibit the different behaviors in the process of superposition. Finally, by adding other small airlines into the above-mentioned aggregated ATNs, it is found that the high clustering coefficient of China’s ATNs and the uneven load are mainly determined by the ATN of four major airline groups, but the average degree of the network is greatly affected by the small airlines ATN. The current findings are beneficial for us to understand the structural properties of Chinese ATNs and further improve the design of domestic flight routs in the future.