Keeping Up with a Growing Network
Much of the focus on growing networks is on the booming social media industry. However, that is not the only network that shows enormous increase in growth. The global air traffic network is also growing increasingly fast, and this article discusses how it may even be too fast for the US. According to the article, the world must double its air traffic infrastructure in order to keep up with demand. Part of the reason is that airline companies are making a lot of money in recent times due to low oil prices, but probably the biggest reason is because of the new middle classes that are arising from new emerging economies. More and more people can now afford to fly, and naturally they will want to take advantage of that new option. Despite the rise in demand, however, many believe that the US is not willing to invest enough in the airline industry to keep up with this demand, and the current infrastructure cannot support the double in demand that is projected to come in 2035.
Air traffic patterns can be easily shown as graphs. If you look at a map of air traffic, the ties are already there as the paths that the planes fly, and the nodes are the airports at which they land, but that description does not take into account how strong or weak those ties are. The rising demand for aviation is causing less frequently used routes, the weak ties, to become strong ties. However, it should be noted that the US’s ties are not changing. With the increase in strength of other global ties due to the increased demand, some of the US’s strong ties may actually go the opposite way and seem like weak ties in comparison. The giant component is becoming more giant due to the increase in airports and flights to, from, and inside other countries, so this is one case in which drawing the whole network out would probably not be helpful. However, in thinking about how the US’s part of the giant component will probably not become much larger while the rest of the giant component will grow, it is easy to see why so many are worried that the US will be “left behind.”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/2015/06/08/demand-to-fly-will-likely-double-but-industry-may-not-be-ready/28680637/