Study on Structural Characteristics of China’s Passenger Airline Network Based on Network Motifs Analysis

Ying Jin, Ye Wei, Chunliang Xiu, Wei Song and Kaixian Yang
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Ying Jin: School of Geographical Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, Jilin 130024, China
Ye Wei: School of Geographical Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, Jilin 130024, China
Chunliang Xiu: College of Jang Ho Architecture, Northeastern University, Shenyang, Liaoning 110169, China
Wei Song: Department of Geography and Geosciences, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292, USA
Kaixian Yang: Department of Geography and Geoinformation Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL 61801, USA

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 9, 1-15

Abstract: The air passenger transport network system is an important agent of social and economic connections between cities. Studying on the airline network structure and providing optimization strategies can improve the airline industry sustainability evolution. As basic building blocks of broad networks, the concept of network motifs is cited in this paper to apply to the structural characteristic analysis of the passenger airline network. The ENUMERATE SUBGRAPHS (G, k) algorithm is used to identify the motifs and anti-motifs of the passenger airline network in China. A total of 37 airline companies are subjected to motif identification and exploring the structural and functional characteristics of the airline networks corresponding to different motifs. These 37 airline companies are classified according to the motif concentration curves into three development stages, which include mono-centric divergence companies at the low-level development stage, transitional companies at the intermediate development stage, and multi-centric and hierarchical companies at the advanced development stage. Finally, we found that adjusting the number of proper network motifs is useful to optimize the overall structure of airline networks, which is profitable for air transport sustainable development.

Keywords: passenger airline network; network motif; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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