Robustness of the air transport network

•This paper defines a methodology to detect critical airports of the air transport network (ATN).•The methodology is based on the effect of airport disconnection on size of giant component.•A list of critical airports for the global ATN of November 2011–November 2012 is presented.•A new node selection criterion to disconnect airports presented, based on Bonacich power centrality.•This new criterion is compared to a wide range of node selection criteria present in the literature. This paper presents a methodology for the detection of critical airports (those whose isolation would cause the largest losses in network connectivity) in the global air transport network (ATN), based on simulating an attack on selected ATN airports using different adaptive selection criteria. The performances of several node selection criteria are compared, together with a new criterion based on Bonacich power centrality. The results show that most critical airports can be detected with an adaptive strategy based on betweenness centrality. The detection of such airports may help the development of contingency plans to develop an appropriate response to any airport closure.