Hierarchy of Air Freight Transportation Network Based on Centrality Measure of Complex Networks

In this paper, the air freight network in China is systematically clustered with the three key indicators of point-degree centrality, middle degree centrality and close centrality of complex network theory based on field air freight transport data. The air freight network is also analyzed from the city, regional and airline. The results show that the distribution of the air freight network in China is imbalanced and has a very clear four hierarchy of hub-level city, regional-level city, middle-level city and edge-level city. The vast majority of air freight, routes, movements, navigable cities concentrated in a few urban and regional cities, and the freight transportation of other cities mainly depend on transfer from the central cities. Reasonable establishments of new routes and navigable cities are rather essential to improve the capacity of air freight hub cities.