Robustness analysis of air route network based on WNSE

Abstract The robustness of the air route network is crucial for the safety and reliability of air transportation. Traditional metrics, such as weighted connectivity, network efficiency, and the largest connected subgraph, fail to adequately account for edge weight differences, thus presenting limitations in evaluating the robustness of the air route network. This paper introduces a robustness metric based on spectral analysis—Weighted Network Spectral Energy (WNSE). Utilizing operational data from the Civil Aviation Administration of East China, multiple attack experiments were conducted. The results demonstrate that WNSE provides higher computational efficiency and accurately evaluates air route network robustness under various attack modes, showing greater sensitivity to intentional attacks, particularly those targeting node degree.