Efficiency of global airlines incorporating sustainability objectives: A Malmquist-DEA approach

Augusto Voltes-Dorta, Rodrigo Britto and Bradley Wilson

Journal of Air Transport Management, 2024, vol. 119, issue C

Abstract: Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, airline managers are still expected to look beyond financial and operational metrics to include sustainability goals that address key environmental, social, and governance aspects of the airline business. While there is a considerable body of literature addressing airline efficiency in terms of environmental performance, studies that integrate the various dimensions of sustainability are notably scarce. This paper aims to fill this gap by estimating technical efficiency using a sample of 34 airline groups between 2019 and 2022, with a Malmquist-Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology that includes financial, operational, and sustainability scores (Environmental and Social). Our results show a productivity loss between 10% and 14% during the COVID-19 period, with a better performance once the carriers are credited for their sustainability achievements. Using a second-stage bootstrapped truncated regression, we confirm the positive impact of hubbing operations and also find significant differences across geographical regions.

Keywords: Airline efficiency; COVID-19 pandemic; Sustainability; Data envelopment analysis (DEA); Bootstrap truncated regression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969699724000991
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jaitra:v:119:y:2024:i:c:s0969699724000991

DOI: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2024.102634

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Air Transport Management is currently edited by Anne Graham

More articles in Journal of Air Transport Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().