Research On Connectivity Of Hub-and-spoke Network

Airline network is the foundation of production and operating activities for airline companies. Since the Eleven Five-Year Plan, Chinese major airlines have launched the construction of hub-and-spoke network, and has begun to take affect. Due to the characteristic of spatial concentration and temporal concentration with hub-and-spoke network, the measure of hub-and-spoke network connectivity should be conducted with both of spatial dimension and temporal dimension. At present, related research mainly focuses on spatial dimension on macro level, lacking the research of spatial dimension on individual airline from the point of the enterprise behavior, and also lacking the quantitative research of temporal dimension for the hub-and-spoke network of airlines. In view of this, a quantitative research of hub-and-spoke network connectivity with both of spatial dimension and temporal dimension for domestic major airlines is conducted.First of all, there is a concept of connectivity, a definition of the research object, and a review with the related theoretical basis and research results. Secondly, a series of indicators of complex network theory related to the characteristic of spatial concentration are chosen to measure the connectivity of spatial dimension specifically, and based on the characteristic of temporal concentration, the connectivity of temporal dimension is measured with a constructed model consisting of a range of indicators, so that a complete set of quantitative measuring method of connectivity is formed. Again, with the measuring method, the hub-and-spoke network connectivity of domestic major airlines is surveyed, to verify the rationality of the proposed method. Finally, on the strength of the method, the key point and strategy of promoting the connectivity of hub-and-spoke network is explored.