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The resilience and vulnerability of airport networks are significant challenges during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Previous studies considered node failure of networks under natural disasters and extreme weather. Herein, we propose a complex network methodology combined with data-driven to assess the resilience of airport networks toward global-scale disturbance using the Chinese airport network (CAN) and the European airport network (EAN) as a case study. The assessment framework includes vulnerability and resilience analyses from the network- and node-level perspectives. Subsequently, we apply the framework to analyze the airport networks in China and Europe. Specifically, real air traffic data for 232 airports in China and 82 airports in Europe are selected to form the CAN and EAN, respectively. The complex network analysis reveals that the CAN and the EAN are scale-free small-world networks, that are resilient to random attacks. However, the connectivity and vulnerability of the CAN are inferior to those of the EAN. In addition, we select the passenger throughput from the top-50 airports in China and Europe to perform a comparative analysis. By comparing the resilience evaluation of individual airports, we discovered that the factors of resilience assessment of an airport network for global disturbance considers the network metrics and the effect of government policy in actual operations. Additionally, this study also proves that a country's emergency response-ability towards the COVID-19 has a significantly affectes the recovery of its airport network., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

As the COVID-19 pandemic fades, the aviation industry is entering a fast recovery period. To analyze airport networks' post-pandemic resilience during the recovery process, this paper proposes a Comprehensive Resilience Assessment (CRA) model approach using the airport networks of China, Europe, and the U.S.A as case studies. The impact of COVID-19 on the networks is analyzed after populating the models of these networks with real air traffic data. The results suggest that the pandemic has caused damage to all three networks, although the damages to the network structures of Europe and the U.S.A are more severe than the damage in China. The analysis suggests that China, as the airport network with less network performance change, has a more stable level of resilience. The analysis also shows that the different levels of stringency policy in prevention and control measures during the epidemic directly affected the recovery rate of the network. This paper provides new insights into the impact of the pandemic on airport network resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]