Flight Connectivity Index as at 31 December 2009
Six months ago I published the first Flight Connectivity Index (FCI) - a measure of how well connected by air every country is to every other country. The FCI value is the number of other countries to which you can fly directly from a given country, based on published schedules of IATA airlines. Domestic flights do not count. To simplify the calculation, countries are defined as members of United Nations, as opposed to using one of the many other country lists available.
Reduced flight connectivity overall
This is the first update of the Flight Connectivity Index. The average FCI has decreased from 23.0 to 22.3. This is partly due to seasonal patterns, but also partly due to the global recession and a couple of airline failures.
The full index will be posted separately. Here are the countries with the highest and lowest FCI scores as at 31 December 2009, with the changes from 30 June 2009 in brackets.
Selected 31 December 2009 FCI results
There are 192 member countries of the United Nations, thus the maximum possible FCI is 191 (because domestic flights do not count). No country has direct flights to all other countries - the highest FCI score is 110 for Germany. Four countries have a zero flight connectivity index - these are the small countries of Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco and San Marino. The average across all countries is 22.3 (23.0 at 30 June 2009). The top 10 flight connectivity index values at 31 December 2009 are equal to or greater than 67 (68 at 30 June 2009), and the bottom 10 are equal to or less than 3. There are 58 countries with a FCI of 9 or less, 3 countries with a FCI of 100 or more (Germany, UK, France) and 17 countries with a FCI score of 50 or more. The countries with the highest and lowest FCI values are shown in the two tables below.
Flight Connectivity Index (FCI) - Top 10 | ||
| Rank | FCI | Country |
| 1 | 110 (+3) | Germany |
| 2 | 107 (+3) | UK |
| 3 | 105 (+1) | France |
| 4 | 84 (-2) | USA |
| 5= | 82 (-1) | Italy |
| 5= | 82 (+6) | UAE |
| 7 | 81 (+2) | Netherlands |
| 8 | 78 (-2) | Turkey |
| 9= | 67 (-1) | Russia |
| 9= | 67 (-1) | Switzerland |
Flight Connectivity Index (FCI) - Bottom 10
| ||
| Rank | FCI | Country |
| No flights | ||
| 189= | 0 | Andorra |
| 189= | 0 | Liechtenstein |
| 189= | 0 | Monaco |
| 189= | 0 | San Marino |
| Flights | ||
| 185= | 1 | Kiribati |
| 185= | 1 | Lesotho |
| 185= | 1 | Swaziland |
| 185= | 1 | Tuvalu |
| 183= | 2 | Marshall Islands |
| 183= | 2 | Nauru |
| 178= | 3 | Belize |
| 178= | 3 (-1) | Comoros |
| 176= | 3 | Micronesia |
| 176= | 3 | North Korea |
| 178= | 3 (-1) | Palau |
| 176= | 3 | Saint Kitts & Nevis |
| 176= | 3 | Timor-Leste |
| 170= | 4 (+1) | Botswana |
