Feature Articles
Estimating the Economic Impact of Air Connectivity Using Network Analysis
11 August 2026
Singapore’s air connectivity is a strategic economic asset that undergirds its role as a global hub. With Changi Airport targeting 200 city links by the mid-2030s, this study seeks to understand how enhanced air connectivity could lead to economic gains and also provide a broad assessment of the cities and regions that Singapore could establish new links with to deliver the greatest economic gains to Singapore.
To conduct the study, we combine flight schedules, city-level GDP and foreign investment data for over 2,000 cities from 2014 to 2024. We then apply network analysis on the dataset to estimate the economic impact of improving air connectivity.
We find that shorter travel times arising from more direct flight routes are associated with stronger economic flows (i.e., foreign direct investment (FDI), direct investment abroad (DIA) and air passenger arrivals).Specifically, a 1-unit reduction in GDP-weighted flight distance experienced by a city is associated with higher FDI inflows of US$192 to US$490 and DIA outflows of US$100 to US$1,250 over five years, as well as an increase in 0.003 to 0.008 air passengers per annum, for the city, depending on the geodesic distance between the city and the source city.
We also find that cities that are better connected within the global air transport network (i.e. with higher betweenness centrality) tend to achieve stronger GDP, reflecting gains from facilitating air passenger transfers and improved efficiency arising from network and scale economies. Specifically, an analysis on the global aviation network found that a 1 percentage-point increase in betweenness centrality of a city is associated with a 0.22 per cent increase in its GDP, while a smaller but statistically significant increase in GDP of 0.084 per cent is estimated for cities with GDP levels similar to Singapore’s.
Our simulations specific to Singapore suggest that the largest economic gains would come from stronger air links with developing and emerging regions, including Latin America, Africa and Central Asia.
Our findings support continued investment in Singapore’s air hub and access to future growth markets, while recognising that route development will also depend on aircraft availability and capability, airline strategies, and the availability of air traffic rights in air service agreements.
The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Ministry of Trade and Industry or the Government of Singapore.