India’s air traffic system: network topologies, hierarchies and evolution

Abstract

The paper examines multi-dimensional patterns of network characteristics for scheduled Indian airlines between 2006 and 2014. The well-known skewed traffic distribution which concentrates traffic around relatively few hub airports serves as the starting point for decomposing the air traffic system (ATS) into its constituent route types. Operations of distinct airlines along these route classes allows for classifying carrier’s network features as an embedded part of the system. Discussion of the carriers’ role in the overall domestic ATS includes a spatial component. Inferences about development paths – past, present, future – of the Indian scheduled ATS can be made.