Un-weighted Network Study of Pakistani Airports

Complex network is a rich field which covers different social, biological and scientific networks. Transportation network is an important indicator to measure the economic growth in any country. In this study different dynamics of Airport Network in Pakistan are analyzed by the complex network methodology. The air traffic data of summer 2016 has been gathered by Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of Pakistan and formatted to fulfill the complex network requirement. The network is formed to observe its different properties and compare these with their topological counterparts. Airports of Pakistan are considered as nodes and flights between them within a week as edges. By analyzing the topology of the network, it has been observed that few focal hubs are present there. Degree distribution showed the behaviour as preferential attachment of nodes, like few nodes have high degree thus controlling overall network which emphasizes that Airport Network in Pakistan (ANP) follows power law. Un-weighted clustering coefficient showed that ANP is moderately clustered network. Clustering coefficient with short average path length underscores that ANP is small-world network. By analyzing the average nearest neighbour degree node, Knn(k), which illustrate that ANP showed disassortative mixing in nature which state that high degree nodes (airports) tend to connect to low degree nodes (airports).