Investigating Strategies of the European Air Transport Network After COVID-19: A Complex Network Theory Analysis

This study explores the new strategic planning of the airports in Europe after COVID-19 based on number of connections and passenger seat capacity. Complex network theory was applied to reveal the European airport network using the Official Airline Guide dataset between September 2021 and August 2022. This study aims to identify changes in the strategy of airports operating in Europe and variations in European hubs for passenger transport based on supply (seat capacity) in the year following the COVID-19 pandemic. 693 airports (nodes) and 10333 routes (edges) were examined in 44 European countries. Centrality metrics have highlighted different airports as pivots. While London Stansted Airport came to the forefront with the highest degree centrality, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport emerged as leader by connecting to highly influential airports with the best eigenvector and strength centrality metrics. Betweenness centrality also demonstrated that Istanbul Airport served as a critical connector, facilitating efficient routes between other airports. Connectivity, efficiency, and organizational patterns were also examined to provide a comprehensive overview of the European airport network. Average degree, clustering coefficient, average path length, diameter, reciprocity, and assortativity were calculated in the scope of connectivity. Each airport in the network is connected to around 29 others. The average path length was calculated as 2.66 to demonstrate how many average flights are needed to travel from one airport to any other in the network.