Re-examining the Rank-Size Distribution, Characteristics, and Evolutionary Trends of Air Transport Flows in China

Understanding of air transport geography is essential since air transport activity is highly related to regional economic development. A geographical issue arises: Does Zipf’s law strike again? Zipf’s law can be an efficient tool to detect the geographical distribution of air passenger (or freight) flows. Using provincial passenger and freight traffic data from 1980 to 2019, this study adopts Zipf’s law to analyze rank-size distribution characteristics of the air transport industry in China and its evolution. We then build a Geo-Detector model to explore the driving forces of geographical distributions (of air traffic). The findings are as follows. First, the geographical distribution of aviation flows in China complies with Zipf’s law, and the freight flow is more significant than the passenger flow. From a spatial to spatial-temporal perspective, the geographical distribution of different aviation flows (i.e., air passenger and freight flows) can be more diverse. Second, critical factors like international import trade, the number of foreign business travelers, and foreign direct investment combine to shape the geographical distribution of air traffic. © National Academy of Sciences: Transportation Research Board 2023.