IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i11p6446-d569721.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Robustness of Air Transportation as Complex Networks:Systematic Review of 15 Years of Research and Outlook into the Future

Author

Listed:
  • Xiaoqian Sun

    (School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China)

  • Sebastian Wandelt

    (School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China)

Abstract

Air transportation systems are an important part of the critical infrastructure in our connected world. Accordingly, a better understanding and improvements in the resilience of the overall air transportation system are essential to the well-functioning of our society and overall sustainability of human beings. In the literature, network science is increasingly used to better understand the resilience dynamics of air transportation. Given the wide application of tools for network science and the importance of designing resilient air transportation systems, a rich body of studies has emerged in recent years. This review paper synthesizes the related literature that has been published throughout the last 15 years regarding the robustness of air transportation systems. The contributions of this work consist of two major elements. The first part provides a comprehensive discussion and cross-comparison of the reported results. We cover several major topics, including node importance identification, failure versus attack profiles, recovery and improvement techniques, and networks of networks approaches. The second part of this paper complements the review of aggregated findings by elaborating on a future agenda for robust air transportation research. Our survey-style overview hopefully contributes toward a better understanding of the state of the art in this research area, and, in turn, to the improvement of future air transportation resilience and sustainability.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiaoqian Sun & Sebastian Wandelt, 2021. "Robustness of Air Transportation as Complex Networks:Systematic Review of 15 Years of Research and Outlook into the Future," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-19, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:11:p:6446-:d:569721
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/11/6446/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/11/6446/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mingli Song & Guangshe Jia & Puwei Zhang, 2020. "An Evaluation of Air Transport Sector Operational Efficiency in China based on a Three-Stage DEA Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-16, May.
    2. Bagler, Ganesh, 2008. "Analysis of the airport network of India as a complex weighted network," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 387(12), pages 2972-2980.
    3. Chen, Yu & Wang, Jiaoe & Jin, Fengjun, 2020. "Robustness of China’s air transport network from 1975 to 2017," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 539(C).
    4. Sun, Xiaoqian & Wandelt, Sebastian & Zhang, Anming, 2020. "How did COVID-19 impact air transportation? A first peek through the lens of complex networks," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    5. Maher, Stephen J. & Desaulniers, Guy & Soumis, François, 2018. "The daily tail assignment problem under operational uncertainty using look-ahead maintenance constraints," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 264(2), pages 534-547.
    6. Sean Wilkinson & Sarah Dunn & Shu Ma, 2012. "The vulnerability of the European air traffic network to spatial hazards," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 60(3), pages 1027-1036, February.
    7. Wen, Xiangxi & Tu, Congliang & Wu, Minggong, 2018. "Node importance evaluation in aviation network based on “No Return” node deletion method," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 503(C), pages 546-559.
    8. Wang, Junwei & Zhou, Yaoming & Huang, George Q., 2019. "Alternative pair in the airport network," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 408-418.
    9. Sun, Xiaoqian & Wandelt, Sebastian & Zheng, Changhong & Zhang, Anming, 2021. "COVID-19 pandemic and air transportation: Successfully navigating the paper hurricane," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    10. Wandelt, Sebastian & Sun, Xiaoqian, 2015. "Evolution of the international air transportation country network from 2002 to 2013," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 55-78.
    11. Mun Hwan Kim & Jin Woo Park & Yu Jin Choi, 2020. "A Study on the Effects of Waiting Time for Airport Security Screening Service on Passengers’ Emotional Responses and Airport Image," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-16, December.
    12. Xiaoqian Sun & Sebastian Wandelt & Xianbin Cao, 2017. "On Node Criticality in Air Transportation Networks," Networks and Spatial Economics, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 737-761, September.
    13. Hayasaka, Satoru, 2016. "Explosive percolation in thresholded networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 451(C), pages 1-9.
    14. Kashyap, G. & Ambika, G., 2019. "Link deletion in directed complex networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 514(C), pages 631-643.
    15. Şafak, Özge & Çavuş, Özlem & Selim Aktürk, M., 2018. "Multi-stage airline scheduling problem with stochastic passenger demand and non-cruise times," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 39-67.
    16. Yu-Jin Choi & Jin-Woo Park, 2020. "Investigating Factors Influencing the Behavioral Intention of Online Duty-Free Shop Users," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-20, August.
    17. Xinglong Wang & Shangfei Miao & Junqing Tang, 2020. "Vulnerability and Resilience Analysis of the Air Traffic Control Sector Network in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-18, May.
    18. Collins Opoku Antwi & Jun Ren & Wilberforce Owusu-Ansah & Henry Kofi Mensah & Michael Osei Aboagye, 2021. "Airport Self-Service Technologies, Passenger Self-Concept, and Behavior: An Attributional View," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-18, March.
    19. Zhou, Yaoming & Wang, Junwei & Huang, George Q., 2019. "Efficiency and robustness of weighted air transport networks," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 14-26.
    20. Lacasa, Lucas & Cea, Miguel & Zanin, Massimiliano, 2009. "Jamming transition in air transportation networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 388(18), pages 3948-3954.
    21. David Antunes & Vikrant Vaze & António Pais Antunes, 2019. "A Robust Pairing Model for Airline Crew Scheduling," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(6), pages 1751-1771, November.
    22. Ki-Han Song & Solsaem Choi, 2020. "A Study on the Behavioral Change of Passengers on Sustainable Air Transport after COVID-19," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-18, November.
    23. Jiachen Ye & Peng Ji & Marc Barthelemy, 2020. "Scenarios for a post-COVID-19 world airline network," Papers 2007.02109, arXiv.org.
    24. Suhyung Yoo & Hwasoo Yeo, 2016. "Evaluation of the resilience of air transportation network with adaptive capacity," International Journal of Urban Sciences, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(sup1), pages 38-49, July.
    25. Voltes-Dorta, Augusto & Rodríguez-Déniz, Héctor & Suau-Sanchez, Pere, 2017. "Vulnerability of the European air transport network to major airport closures from the perspective of passenger delays: Ranking the most critical airports," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 119-145.
    26. Dunn, Sarah & Wilkinson, Sean M., 2016. "Increasing the resilience of air traffic networks using a network graph theory approach," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 39-50.
    27. Cerqueti, Roy & Ferraro, Giovanna & Iovanella, Antonio, 2019. "Measuring network resilience through connection patterns," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 320-329.
    28. Ki Han Song & Solsaem Choi & Ik Hyun Han, 2020. "Competitiveness Evaluation Methodology for Aviation Industry Sustainability Using Network DEA," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-16, December.
    29. Wang, Jianwei & Sun, Enhui & Xu, Bo & Li, Peng & Ni, Chengzhang, 2016. "Abnormal cascading failure spreading on complex networks," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 695-701.
    30. Verena Nüchter & David J. Abson & Henrik von Wehrden & John-Oliver Engler, 2021. "The Concept of Resilience in Recent Sustainability Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-21, March.
    31. Wandelt, Sebastian & Shi, Xing & Sun, Xiaoqian, 2021. "Estimation and improvement of transportation network robustness by exploiting communities," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    32. Lamb, Tracy L. & Winter, Scott R. & Rice, Stephen & Ruskin, Keith J. & Vaughn, Austin, 2020. "Factors that predict passengers willingness to fly during and after the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    33. Stefano Maria Iacus & Fabrizio Natale & Carlos Satamaria & Spyridon Spyratos & Michele Vespe, 2020. "Estimating and Projecting Air Passenger Traffic during the COVID-19 Coronavirus Outbreak and its Socio-Economic Impact," Papers 2004.08460, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2020.
    34. Faramondi, Luca & Setola, Roberto & Panzieri, Stefano & Pascucci, Federica & Oliva, Gabriele, 2018. "Finding critical nodes in infrastructure networks," International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 3-15.
    35. Wong, Allen & Tan, Sijian & Chandramouleeswaran, Keshav Ram & Tran, Huy T., 2020. "Data-driven analysis of resilience in airline networks," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    36. Ouyang, Min & Pan, ZheZhe & Hong, Liu & He, Yue, 2015. "Vulnerability analysis of complementary transportation systems with applications to railway and airline systems in China," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 248-257.
    37. Kim, Seyun & Yoon, Yoonjin, 2019. "On node criticality of the Northeast Asian air route network," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1-1.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wandelt, Sebastian & Sun, Xiaoqian & Zhang, Anming, 2023. "Towards analyzing the robustness of the Integrated Global Transportation Network Abstraction (IGTNA)," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    2. Su, Junbiao & Wu, Hanjun & Tsui, Kan Wai Hong & Fu, Xiaowen & Lei, Zheng, 2023. "Aviation resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic: A case study of the European aviation market," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    3. He, Hang & Wu, Hanjun & Tsui, Kan Wai Hong & Wang, Biao & Fu, Xiaowen, 2024. "Spatiotemporal evolution of air cargo networks and its impact on economic development - An analysis of China's domestic market before and during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    4. Rong, Qingnan & Zhang, Jun & Sun, Xiaoqian & Wandelt, Sebastian, 2022. "On the estimation of percolation thresholds for real networks," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    5. Wang, Xinglong & Peng, Jinhan & Tang, Junqing & Lu, Qiuchen & Li, Xiaowei, 2022. "Investigating the impact of adding new airline routes on air transportation resilience in China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 79-95.
    6. Sugishita, Kashin & Mizutani, Hiroki & Hanaoka, Shinya, 2024. "Disruption and recovery of the US domestic airline networks during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Li, Siping & Zhou, Yaoming & Kundu, Tanmoy & Sheu, Jiuh-Biing, 2021. "Spatiotemporal variation of the worldwide air transportation network induced by COVID-19 pandemic in 2020," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 168-184.
    2. Sun, Xiaoqian & Wandelt, Sebastian & Zheng, Changhong & Zhang, Anming, 2021. "COVID-19 pandemic and air transportation: Successfully navigating the paper hurricane," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    3. Zhou, Yaoming & Kundu, Tanmoy & Qin, Wei & Goh, Mark & Sheu, Jiuh-Biing, 2021. "Vulnerability of the worldwide air transportation network to global catastrophes such as COVID-19," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    4. Li, Siping & Zhou, Yaoming & Kundu, Tanmoy & Zhang, Fangni, 2021. "Impact of entry restriction policies on international air transport connectivity during COVID-19 pandemic," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    5. Güner, Samet & Antunes, Jorge Junio Moreira & Seçkin Codal, Keziban & Wanke, Peter, 2024. "Network centrality driven airport efficiency: A weight-restricted network DEA," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    6. Mutascu, Mihai & Sokic, Alexandre, 2023. "Air transportation under COVID-19 pandemic restrictions: A wavelet analysis," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 155-181.
    7. Zhang, Hui & Xu, Min & Ouyang, Min, 2024. "A multi-perspective functionality loss assessment of coupled railway and airline systems under extreme events," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    8. Bingxue Qian & Ning Zhang, 2022. "Topology and Robustness of Weighted Air Transport Networks in Multi-Airport Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-15, June.
    9. Feng, Xiao & He, Shiwei & Li, Guangye & Chi, Jushang, 2021. "Transfer network of high-speed rail and aviation: Structure and critical components," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 581(C).
    10. Li, Tao & Rong, Lili, 2022. "Spatiotemporally complementary effect of high-speed rail network on robustness of aviation network," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 95-114.
    11. Pan, Shouzheng & Yan, Hai & He, Jia & He, Zhengbing, 2021. "Vulnerability and resilience of transportation systems: A recent literature review," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 581(C).
    12. Li, Tao & Rong, Lili, 2020. "A comprehensive method for the robustness assessment of high-speed rail network with operation data: A case in China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 666-681.
    13. Li, Siping & Xu, Gangyan & Zhou, Yaoming, 2023. "How air transport networks respond to long-lasting disruptive events like COVID-19: The first step toward long-term resilience," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    14. Liu, Aijun & Li, Zengxian & Shang, Wen-Long & Ochieng, Washington, 2023. "Performance evaluation model of transportation infrastructure: Perspective of COVID-19," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    15. Xue, Dabin & Liu, Zhizhao & Wang, Bing & Yang, Jian, 2021. "Impacts of COVID-19 on aircraft usage and fuel consumption: A case study on four Chinese international airports," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    16. Li, Tao & Rong, Lili & Yan, Kesheng, 2019. "Vulnerability analysis and critical area identification of public transport system: A case of high-speed rail and air transport coupling system in China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 55-70.
    17. Xu, Yifan & Wandelt, Sebastian & Sun, Xiaoqian, 2021. "Airline integrated robust scheduling with a variable neighborhood search based heuristic," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 181-203.
    18. Wandelt, Sebastian & Sun, Xiaoqian & Zhang, Anming, 2023. "Towards analyzing the robustness of the Integrated Global Transportation Network Abstraction (IGTNA)," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    19. Li, Tao & Rong, Lili, 2021. "Impacts of service feature on vulnerability analysis of high-speed rail network," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 238-253.
    20. Warnock-Smith, David & Graham, Anne & O'Connell, John F. & Efthymiou, Marina, 2021. "Impact of COVID-19 on air transport passenger markets: Examining evidence from the Chinese market," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:11:p:6446-:d:569721. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.