Geoeconomics in Air Transport: A Network-Based Interpretation of Global Air Transport Systems

Air transport networks function as strategic infrastructure whose structural evolution reflects broader geopolitical and economic forces. This study introduces a network-based interpretive framework for Geoeconomics in Air Transport by integrating complex network analysis with geoeconomic perspectives. It conceptualizes air transport networks as strategic economic infrastructure in which network topology encodes market access, power asymmetries, and resilience under geopolitical uncertainty. Using global civil aviation data, this paper constructs air transport networks at both the global level and across major regions—including the United States, Europe, the Middle East, ASEAN, China, and Japan—and compares passenger and cargo connectivity before (2019) and after (2023) the COVID-19 pandemic. Standard network metrics, such as centrality, topology, and connectivity, are used to quantify structural changes, which are subsequently interpreted through a geoeconomic lens. Global connectivity increased by approximately 8% in the post-pandemic period. In contrast, the United States—maintaining the most structurally resilient national air transport network—expanded by about 12%, while connectivity across Asian countries contracted, either domestically, internationally, or both. These patterns reflect a combination of intentional strategic responses and unintended structural adjustments. North American and European networks remain large-scale, meshed, and structurally resilient, whereas regions outside these core areas exhibit stronger hub-and-spoke dependence, both internally and in their connections with core regions. Such dependence signals persistent geoeconomic asymmetries and increased exposure to external shocks, despite higher traffic volumes per route. Betweenness centrality shifted markedly from European and North American hubs toward the Middle East, indicating the emergence of a geoeconomic intermediary region capable of sustaining connectivity across increasingly fragmented markets. The findings further demonstrate that, despite the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union, institutional and strategic realignments can enhance air transport network resilience in ways not anticipated by conventional geoeconomic interpretations of regional integration. By linking quantitative network outcomes with geoeconomic interpretation, this study provides reproducible insights into the strategic reconfiguration of global air transport systems under rising geopolitical uncertainty.

• Publication year

  2026

• Venue

  Aerospace

• Publication date

  2026-02-10

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3390/aerospace13020162
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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