FLYING WHERE YOU DON'T WANT TO GO: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF HUBS IN THE GLOBAL AIRLINE NETWORK

Authors: DERUDDER, BEN; DEVRIENDT, LOMME; WITLOX, FRANK

Source: Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Volume 98, Number 3, July 2007 , pp. 307-324(18)

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Abstract:

This paper aims to contribute to the literature on the rise of so-called `network cities' through an empirical analysis of hubs in the global airline network. Standard airline databases do not feature the actual routes flown by passengers, and therefore, a new and previously untapped database is introduced. The employed data are transnational and feature origin/destination statistics with additional information on intermediate stops (if any), which allows a thorough assessment of hub structures in the global airline network. The first part of the empirical analysis presents a threefold hub assessment, i.e. (i) an overview of the major hubs in absolute terms, (ii) a similar overview of hubs in relative terms, and (iii) a measure that focuses on the number of cities that make intense use of a hub. The second part of the empirical analysis focuses on some aspects of the spatiality of hub-and-spoke organisation. This is achieved through an examination of the proportion of `regional' hub passengers and some notable case studies.

Keywords: Global cities; network cities; hub-and-spoke networks; airline data; MIDT

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9663.2007.00399.x

Affiliations: 1: Department of Geography, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281/S8, B9000 Ghent, Belgium. s: ; lomme.devriendt@ugent.be., Email: ben.derudder@ugent.be

Publication date: 2007-07-01