Tarkhov S.A. Deformation of the largest airports hierarchy in the world and Europe in the COVID-19 pandemic context

Abstract

The passenger turnover of almost all airports fell sharply from 30% to 90% in COVID-19 pandemic - most of all in those where the share of international passengers dominated, less - where domestic traffic prevailed. Changes in the rank of the hierarchy of the 60 largest airports in the world and 60 airports in Europe, caused by the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, are analyzed. A special technique has been developed for assessing the stability and variability of such a hierarchy. The values of three indicators of variability of the hierarchy of airports are compared in the pre-covid and in the first phase of the covid period. The level of internal instability in the global aviation system increased from 82 to 98%, in Europe – from 62 to 93%. The degree of rank lability of airports in the world has increased 8.8 times, in Europe – 4.5 times. The hierarchy of world and European air transport systems turned out to be relatively stable in the pre-covid era. In a pandemic, it has become deformed and very unstable. Its main deformers were airports in those countries where flight restrictions were lifted much earlier than in the rest of the world, as well as the new ones opened. Empirically, 5 types of variability in the hierarchy of airport systems have been identified: a very unstable hierarchy. The larger the territorial size of the airport system, the more changeable and unstable its hierarchical structure. Systems that are very large in terms of territorial size are more vulnerable to external influences (pandemics) than large or medium-sized ones, which is manifested in the degree of variability of their hierarchical structures.

Financing
The study was carried out within the framework of the topic of the state assignment of the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences AAAA-A19-119022190170-1 (FMGE-2019-0008)