A continuous connectivity model for evaluation of hub-and-spoke operations

The deregulation of the air transport industry in Europe and the USA has led airlines to reconfigure their networks into hub-and-spoke systems. Recently, movements towards open skies in the Asian aviation market are expected to prompt the restructuring of airline networks in the region. A fine connectivity index is a crucial tool for airlines and airport authorities in the estimation of the degree of hub operations. This paper proposes the Continuous Connectivity Index (CCI), a new index for measuring the coordination of airline flight schedules, and applies it to the Asian aviation market as well as to European and American markets. The CCI consists of three components: (i) temporal connectivity to readily identify long-haul flight connections, which is related to the application of a continuous linear function, the new minimum connection time, and the maximum acceptable connection time; (ii) spatial connectivity to differentiate attractiveness by applying the de-routing effect with a continuous linear f...