Flight Connectivity Index – as at 31 December 2011

Each six months I look at how well connected by air countries are to each other – the Flight Connectivity Index (FCI).  Previous updates - FCI 30 June 2009, FCI 31 December 2009,  FCI 30 June 2010, FCI 31 December 2010 and FCI 31 June 2011.

Flight Connectivity Index (FCI)

The Flight Connectivity Index (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.

With South Sudan joining the United Nations in the past six months there are now 193 member countries of the UN, and the maximum FCI score is 192.  Germany is the country with highest FCI at the moment, at 111 (+1 from a year ago and the highest index I’ve yet recorded).  Four countries have no flights and FCI score of 0 – these are Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco and San Marino.  The average FCI is 23.19, unchanged from December 2010.

Since the last update there has been the usual seasonal changes.  In the first half of 2011 most of the spring revolution countries (North Africa plus Syria) lost some connectivity.  In the second half of 2011 most of these countries saw normal air service resume.  Libya is the notable exception and in the past 12 months has seen the flight connectivity index reduce from 39 to just 10 – by far the biggest annual change in connectivity I’ve recorded to date (the next biggest annual change was Togo increasing their score by 10 in 2010).  Indeed, if we ignore the 2011 change in Libya’s connectivity the average FCI would be 0.30 higher.

More results after the jump.

The top 10 most connected countries have a FCI score of at least 72 (up 4 from a year ago).  The FCI score of Russia has increased by 5 in the past year, Belgium and France has increased by 4, while United Arab Emirates has reduced by 3.  Spain drops from 9th ranked country to 11th, while Belgium enters the top 10 at 10th rank.

Please note the change figures in the tables is for 12 months to remove seasonal effects.  Previously I reported 6 month change figures.

Sao Tome and Principe leaves the bottom 10 least connected countries due to an increase in their FCI score from 3 to 7.

I thought some readers may be interested in seeing the FCI changes over the past year.  Here is a listing ranked from largest gains down to largest loss (no change countries not listed).

Finally, here is a full country listing in alphabetical order.