Impact of service network topology on air transportation efficiency

•Network models used to represent various air transportation system architectures.•We quantify architecture performance based on several stakeholder-centered metrics.•Scale-free topologies are preferred under most metrics.•Random topologies have higher robustness compared to scale-free.•Random and scale-free performance become similar as network density is increased.

Each stakeholder in the air transportation system has a different perspective on the performance efficiency metrics, making analysis of system-wide design options very difficult. This paper uses topological structures of service networks to examine trade-offs between efficiency metrics established around the passenger, airline, and air navigation service provider perspectives. The findings indicate that the scale-free type topologies are preferred under most of the metrics. However, with enough density, random topologies become more appealing with its high robustness feature and performance comparable to scale-free.