Research Article

Exploring the Regional Structure of the Worldwide Air Traffic and Route Networks

Table 17

Summary of the main results.

ā€‰WeightedUnweighted

Community structureAlgorithmsLouvainLouvain
Communities17 communities27 communities

Component structureLocal components5 large components7 large components
North and Central America-CaribbeanNorth and Central America-Caribbean
Africa-Middle East-Southern AsiaAfrica-Middle East-Southern Asia
South AmericaSouth America
Europe-Russia-Central AsiaEurope
Russia
East and Southeast Asia-OceaniaEast and Southeast Asia
Oceania
12 small components20 small components
Global components1 large1 large
11 small components9 small components

Average clustering coefficient versus degreeLocal componentNo correlation with the degreeDecrease as a function of degree
Global componentNo correlation with the degreeDecrease as a function of degree
WorldwideNo correlation with the degreeDecrease as a function of degree

Average degree-degree correlation versus degreeLocal componentsNorth and Central America-Caribbean, South America, Europe-Russia-Central Asia, and the East and Southeast Asia-Oceania are more and more disassortative as the degree increases
Independent of the degree for the Africa-Middle East-Southern Asia component
Global componentDisassortativity increases with the degreeDisassortativity increases with the degree
WorldwideIndependent of the degreeIndependent of the degree

Degree strength distributionLocal componentsLog-normalThe Africa-Middle East-Southern Asia, Oceania, and the Russia-Central Asia-Transcaucasia components follow a log-normal law
The North America-Caribbean and the East and Southeast Asia components follow stretched exponential
Europe and the South America components follow a truncated power law
Global componentLog-normalTruncated power law
WorldwideLog-normalTruncated power law

CentralityLocal componentsTop strength airports and top degree airports of the North and Central America-Caribbean and the East and Southeast Asia-Oceania components are identical
Top strength airports and top degree airports of the Europe-Russia-Central Asia, Africa-Middle East-Southern Asia, and the South America components are different
Global componentTop strength airports and top degree airports of the components are identical
WorldwideTop strength airports and top degree airports of the components are different

CoreLocal componentsSome airports in the USA and Brazil cover the s-core and the k-core of the North and Central Asia-America and the South America
The s-core and the k-core of Europe-Russia-Central Asia and Africa-Middle East-Southern Asia are distributed between several countries
The s-core of the East and Southeast Asia-Oceania is distributed between the two subregionsMainly China airports cover the k-core of East and Southeast Asia-Oceania
Global component3 regions (North and Central Asia-America, Europe-Russia-Central Asia, and East and Southeast Asia) cover the s-coreCovered by all the components
WorldwideNorth and Central Asia-America component covers mainly the s-coreEurope-Russia-Central Asia component covers mainly the k-core