Robustness analysis of hierarchical airline network based on penalty factor

The robust performance of Chinese domestic airline network (CAN) is systematically analyzed in this paper. In order to consider isolated points (or failure points) which produced by the deleting of edges (or nodes), the concept of penalty factor is introduced. And then, the connectivity efficiency of airline network is characterized by the average shortest distance. At last, the robust performance of airline network is evaluated according to the change rules of the average shortest distance. In addition, CAN is divided into trunk network and branch network, and the differences of network robust performance are systematically compared when the edges (or nodes) of different hierarchies are deleted. Results indicate that CAN is of better robustness to the edge deletion of trunk network under the condition of edge failure. However, under the condition of node failure, it is of better robustness to the node deletion of branch network. In addition, compare to the condition of edge failure, the Chinese domestic airline network is more vulnerable under the condition of node failure.