Air Passenger Flow Structure Analysis with Network View

The structure diagrams of air passenger flow network of China are plotted with NetDraw.From the perspective of structural characteristics,statistic characteristics,degree distribution,and network centrality,the paper analyzes the structure of air passenger flow in China from the year 2002 to 2008 using theory and methods of network.It provides quantitative reference and theoretical support for the development of air passenger transport of China.Results show that a city averagely has direct air links with other 12 cities and any city can be reached by transferring for 1.3 times in the network.A short average path length(about 2.3) and a high degree of clustering(above 0.7) shows that the network has the characteristic of small-world.The cumulative degree distribution obeys the two-regime power law which demonstrates the property of scale-free.The density of the network is extremely small and centrality is low.The development of air passenger network of China is un-balanced,showing a weight east and light west pattern.