Airplanes are essential modes of transportation for both people and goods in today's completely globalized world. Almost everyone benefits from this cutting-edge transportation technology. As a result, having a broad awareness of global airline/airport connectivity is essential, as in knowing how many airlines fly to and from a specific airport in your jurisdiction. As a result, it is necessary to investigate or comprehend whether or not an anti-social country has any kind of flight connectivity globally or within the continent from which they originate. Given such continent, what impact does the country with the most flights connectivity has on this anti-social country and other countries on its continent. In order to address the project's main question, "Are there international flights for anti-social countries?" a graph network analysis was used. If so, where exactly are these connections? For the global network connectivity, a weighted and undirected graph network was obtained. A chosen anti-social country as such Burundi in the Sub-Saharan African geographical area, as well as its connectivity within the global network, were then extracted and observed. In addition, a table of cities, countries, and airports that offered such flight connectivity to the anti-social country was estimated. A graph of network centralities for Sub-Saharan African countries also aided in determining the influence Kenya, which had the largest airports and airlines in the region, has on the total flight connectivity network in the region. Graphical and tabular results suggested that Burundi, an anti-social country, may be reached by plane from four countries and cities: Belgium's Brussels in Europe, Uganda's Entebbe, Rwanda's Kigali, and Kenya's Nairobi in Africa's Sub-Saharan area. However, it was once again highlighted that the failure of Kenya's flight operation jeopardizes the entire flight connectivity in the Sub-Saharan area, rendering nations like Eritrea, Botswana, and Burundi non-functional in terms of flight connectivity, and affecting their economic activity at large.
This report's main objective is to respond to the following research questions.
- Are there international flights for anti-social countries? If so, where exactly?
For a given anti-social country in the Sub-Saharan Africa continent, I investigated its global flight connectivity and identify specifically which airports, cities, and countries provide these connections.
- What effect does a Sub-Saharan African country with the most flight connectivity has on the entire Sub-Saharan Africa flight network?
Using centrality measures, I selected the country with the most flight connectivity from a graph of the Sub-Saharan Africa flight network. Then I disconnected this country from the rest of the network to see how it affects the anti-social country and its neighbors.
- Is there any kind of community structure in the flight network in Sub-Saharan Africa, given the continent's flight connectivity?
In examining various network structures, it is necessary to look for communities inside them. Community detection techniques are useful in this research to locate countries with common flight connections and keep them connected.
Other subsidiary questions that were answered in this report are;
- Globally, which country has the most airports?
- Globally, which country has the most airlines?
- What is the statistical relationship between the number of airports and airlines?