A Study on the Coupled and Coordinated Development of Air Accessibility and Economic Linkage Strength in International Hub Cities

Abstract

There is an interactive development relationship between aviation accessibility and the economic driving effect, and the realization of coordinated national regional development requires the coupled development of the two. Based on the weighted average travel time, flight frequency, and city economic indicators, this paper analyses the changes in air accessibility of the top ten international aviation hub cities from 2010 to 2019, adopts the gravity model to measure the economic linkage strength of the top ten international aviation hubs during the ten years, and explores the coupling and coordinating effect between air accessibility and economic linkage strength. The results of the study show that: (1) aviation accessibility among international hub cities shows the phenomenon of "vertical continuous improvement, horizontal class solidification", and the overall distribution pattern of "3+5+2"; (2) The economic driving effect among international hub cities shows the overall phenomenon of The phenomenon of "vertical steady improvement, horizontal polarisation", with the intensity of economic ties between Beijing and Shanghai much higher than that of other regions; (3) The coupling and coordination between air accessibility and economic ties between international hub cities shows an "olive" structure, and can be divided into three types: "leading regional economic development, leading air transport development, and synchronous development of regional economy and air transport". Based on the above empirical results, two development countermeasures are proposed: (1) Differentiated development based on functional positioning; and (2) Integrated regional coordinated development.