How to Measure Airport Connectivity? - Average Shortest Travel Time as Indicator

Abstract

Air transport is connecting people and industries all over the world. However, it is not clearly defined how to measure this positive effect of air transport. In principle, connectivity indicators allow the quantification of the connection quality of an airport to the air transport network and estimate the contribution of individual airlines to this effect. The paper presents the composition of different connectivity indicators. Base for the presented indicators is a shortest path search algorithm that finds the optimal connections between worldwide airports with regard to travel time or number of stops. The paper focusses on the development of an airport connectivity indicator that can be described as the average quickest travel time from the specified airport. By integrating also the temporal development of the shortest travel time, the indicator rewards not only quick travel times but also high connection frequencies to other airports. The presented indicators aim to provide public institutions and airport operators with important information about the location, while airlines may highlight the advantages of a location by their presence. These benefits are demonstrated by case studies in which the connectivity performances of selected airports and selected airlines are compared.