How air transport connects the world – A new metric of air connectivity and its evolution between 1990 and 2012

• A model for connectivity and centrality in the air transport network is developed.
• The “connectivity value” of a routing is derived from observed passenger behavior.
• The metrics are computed for all worldwide airports for the years 1990–2012.
• Significant growth of global connectivity is observed between 1990 and 2012.
• Connectivity trends differ according to type, time and location.

To understand as to how scheduled air services link a region to other markets, we develop connectivity and hub centrality metrics. These metrics measure the quality of all scheduled air services in terms of frequency, detours, layover time and destination quality using a valuation scale being derived from observed passenger behavior. By computing yearly scores for 1990 to 2012, we analyze the geography of and trends in worldwide connectivity and hub centrality. While we observe significant growth of aggregate connectivity, the trends are heterogeneous with regard to the type of connectivity as well as time and location.