How to measure airport connectivity? – average shortest travel time and average highest path velocity as indicators

Abstract

Connectivity indicators quantify the quality of an airport's connection to the air transport network and the contribution of individual airlines to overall connectivity. In this paper, the authors present two new connectivity indicators: the average shortest travel time (ASTT) and the average highest path velocity (AHPV). Both indicators are based on a shortest path search algorithm that finds the optimal connections between worldwide airports with regard to travel time or number of stops. The main advantage of the new indicators is the calculation of the shortest travel time depending on the time of departure, therefore combining both the number of frequencies offered and the travel time into one indicator value. By integrating shortest travel time over time of day, the indicator rewards both short travel times and a high number of connection frequencies. The benefits of the newly developed indicators and possible applications are demonstrated by two brief case studies.