Modeling the Multi-layer Nature of the European Air Transport Network: Resilience and Passengers Re-scheduling under random failures

TL;DR

This paper models the European Air Transport Network as a multiplex network to analyze its resilience against random failures and the impact on passenger re-scheduling, highlighting the importance of multiplexity in robustness.

Contribution

It introduces a multiplex network framework for the European Air Transport Network and compares its resilience to a single-layer approach, revealing multiplexity's critical role.

Findings

Multiplex modeling shows increased robustness compared to single-layer models.

Random flight failures significantly impact passenger re-scheduling.

Multiplexity enhances the network's resilience to disruptions.

Abstract

We study the dynamics of the European Air Transport Network by using a multiplex network formalism. We will consider the set of flights of each airline as an interdependent network and we analyze the resilience of the system against random flight failures in the passenger's rescheduling problem. A comparison between the single-plex approach and the corresponding multiplex one is presented illustrating that the multiplexity strongly affects the robustness of the European Air Network.