Analysis and Resilience of the U.S. Flight Network

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kafle, Sushrit, Pandey, Shreejan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866913844027195392
author Kafle, Sushrit
Pandey, Shreejan
author_facet Kafle, Sushrit
Pandey, Shreejan
contents Air travel is one of the most widely used transportation services in the United States. This paper analyzes the U.S. Flight Network (USFN) using complex network theory by exploring how the network's topology contributes to its efficiency and vulnerability. This is done by examining the structural properties, degree distributions, and community structures in the network. USFN was observed to follow power-law distribution and falls under the anomalous regime, suggesting that the network is hub dominant. Compared to null networks, USFN has a higher clustering coefficient and modularity. Various percolation test revealed that USFN is vulnerable to targeted attacks and is susceptible to complete cascading failure if one of the major hubs fails. The overall results suggest that while the USFN is designed for efficiency, it is highly vulnerable to disruptions. Protecting key hub airports is important to make the network more robust and prevent large-scale failures.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_11559
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Analysis and Resilience of the U.S. Flight Network
Kafle, Sushrit
Pandey, Shreejan
Physics and Society
Artificial Intelligence
Social and Information Networks
Air travel is one of the most widely used transportation services in the United States. This paper analyzes the U.S. Flight Network (USFN) using complex network theory by exploring how the network's topology contributes to its efficiency and vulnerability. This is done by examining the structural properties, degree distributions, and community structures in the network. USFN was observed to follow power-law distribution and falls under the anomalous regime, suggesting that the network is hub dominant. Compared to null networks, USFN has a higher clustering coefficient and modularity. Various percolation test revealed that USFN is vulnerable to targeted attacks and is susceptible to complete cascading failure if one of the major hubs fails. The overall results suggest that while the USFN is designed for efficiency, it is highly vulnerable to disruptions. Protecting key hub airports is important to make the network more robust and prevent large-scale failures.
title Analysis and Resilience of the U.S. Flight Network
topic Physics and Society
Artificial Intelligence
Social and Information Networks
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.11559