IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jaitra/v43y2015icp46-56.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Efficiency of US airlines: A strategic operating model

Author

Listed:
  • Mallikarjun, Sreekanth

Abstract

This paper applies the unoriented DEA network methodology to measure US airlines' performance relative to that of peer airlines and identifies the sources of its inefficiency. The analysis of the results suggests that major US airlines are more efficient than national US airlines in spending operating expenses and gaining operating revenue, but there is no significant difference in their service supply and demand efficiencies.

Suggested Citation

  • Mallikarjun, Sreekanth, 2015. "Efficiency of US airlines: A strategic operating model," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 46-56.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jaitra:v:43:y:2015:i:c:p:46-56
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2014.12.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969699714001525
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2014.12.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rolf Färe & Shawna Grosskopf & Gerald Whittaker, 2014. "Network DEA II," International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, in: Wade D. Cook & Joe Zhu (ed.), Data Envelopment Analysis, edition 127, chapter 0, pages 307-327, Springer.
    2. Greer, Mark, 2009. "Is it the labor unions' fault? Dissecting the causes of the impaired technical efficiencies of the legacy carriers in the United States," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 43(9-10), pages 779-789, November.
    3. Tavassoli, Mohammad & Faramarzi, Gholam Reza & Farzipoor Saen, Reza, 2014. "Efficiency and effectiveness in airline performance using a SBM-NDEA model in the presence of shared input," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 146-153.
    4. David Good & M. Nadiri & Lars-Hendrik Röller & Robin Sickles, 1993. "Efficiency and productivity growth comparisons of European and U.S. Air carriers: A first look at the data," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 115-125, June.
    5. Barbot, Cristina & Costa, Ã lvaro & Sochirca, Elena, 2008. "Airlines performance in the new market context: A comparative productivity and efficiency analysis," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 270-274.
    6. Harold Fried & Shelton Schmidt & Suthathip Yaisawarng, 1999. "Incorporating the Operating Environment Into a Nonparametric Measure of Technical Efficiency," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 249-267, November.
    7. Ehrlich, Isaac & Georges Gallais-Hamonno & Zhiqiang Liu & Randall Lutter, 1994. "Productivity Growth and Firm Ownership: An Analytical and Empirical Investigation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(5), pages 1006-1038, October.
    8. I. Ehrlich & Georges Gallais-Hamonno & Zh Liu & R. Lutter, 1994. "Productivy Growth & Firm Ownership : an Analytical & Empirical Investigation," Post-Print halshs-00276861, HAL.
    9. Tarun Khanna & Krishna Palepu, 2000. "Is Group Affiliation Profitable in Emerging Markets? An Analysis of Diversified Indian Business Groups," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(2), pages 867-891, April.
    10. Pearson, James & Merkert, Rico, 2014. "Airlines-within-airlines: A business model moving East," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 21-26.
    11. Tone, Kaoru & Tsutsui, Miki, 2009. "Network DEA: A slacks-based measure approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 197(1), pages 243-252, August.
    12. Inglada, Vicente & Rey, Belen & Rodri­guez-Alvarez, Ana & Coto-Millan, Pablo, 2006. "Liberalisation and efficiency in international air transport," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 95-105, February.
    13. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    14. Assaf, A. George & Josiassen, Alexander, 2012. "European vs. U.S. airlines: Performance comparison in a dynamic market," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 317-326.
    15. Tim Coelli & Sergio Perelman & Elliot Romano, 1999. "Accounting for Environmental Influences in Stochastic Frontier Models: With Application to International Airlines," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 251-273, June.
    16. Bhadra, Dipasis, 2009. "Race to the bottom or swimming upstream: Performance analysis of US airlines," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 227-235.
    17. Baltagi, Badi H & Griffin, James M & Rich, Daniel P, 1995. "Airline Deregulation: The Cost Pieces of the Puzzle," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 36(1), pages 245-260, February.
    18. Tone, Kaoru & Tsutsui, Miki, 2010. "Dynamic DEA: A slacks-based measure approach," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 38(3-4), pages 145-156, June.
    19. Tsai, Wen-Hsien & Kuo, Lopin, 2004. "Operating costs and capacity in the airline industry," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 269-275.
    20. Lee, Boon L. & Worthington, Andrew C., 2014. "Technical efficiency of mainstream airlines and low-cost carriers: New evidence using bootstrap data envelopment analysis truncated regression," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 15-20.
    21. Sickles, Robin C. & Good, David & Johnson, Richard L., 1986. "Allocative distortions and the regulatory transition of the U.S. airline industry," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1-2), pages 143-163.
    22. Joe Zhu, 2014. "Data Envelopment Analysis," International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, in: Quantitative Models for Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking, edition 3, chapter 1, pages 1-9, Springer.
    23. Barros, Carlos Pestana & Peypoch, Nicolas, 2009. "An evaluation of European airlines' operational performance," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 525-533, December.
    24. Joe Sarkis, 2007. "Preparing Your Data for DEA," Springer Books, in: Joe Zhu & Wade D. Cook (ed.), Modeling Data Irregularities and Structural Complexities in Data Envelopment Analysis, chapter 0, pages 305-320, Springer.
    25. Schmidt, Peter & Sickles, Robin C, 1984. "Production Frontiers and Panel Data," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 2(4), pages 367-374, October.
    26. Arjomandi, Amir & Seufert, Juergen Heinz, 2014. "An evaluation of the world's major airlines' technical and environmental performance," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 133-144.
    27. Chiou, Yu-Chiun & Chen, Yen-Heng, 2006. "Route-based performance evaluation of Taiwanese domestic airlines using data envelopment analysis," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 116-127, March.
    28. Cook, Wade D. & Tone, Kaoru & Zhu, Joe, 2014. "Data envelopment analysis: Prior to choosing a model," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 1-4.
    29. Ray, Subhash C & Mukherjee, Kankana, 1996. "Decomposition of the Fisher Ideal Index of Productivity: A Non-parametric Dual Analysis of US Airlines Data," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(439), pages 1659-1678, November.
    30. Sengupta, Jati K., 1999. "A dynamic efficiency model using data envelopment analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 209-218, September.
    31. Alvarez, Roberto & Crespi, Gustavo, 2003. "Determinants of Technical Efficiency in Small Firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 233-244, May.
    32. Barros, Carlos Pestana & Couto, Eduardo, 2013. "Productivity analysis of European airlines, 2000–2011," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 11-13.
    33. Good, David H. & Roller, Lars-Hendrik & Sickles, Robin C., 1995. "Airline efficiency differences between Europe and the US: Implications for the pace of EC integration and domestic regulation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 508-518, February.
    34. Peter Forsyth & Rob Hill & Chris Trengrove, 1986. "Measuring airline efficiency," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 7(1), pages 61-81, February.
    35. Zhu, Joe, 2001. "Super-efficiency and DEA sensitivity analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 129(2), pages 443-455, March.
    36. Mallikarjun, Sreekanth & Lewis, Herbert F. & Sexton, Thomas R., 2014. "Operational performance of U.S. public rail transit and implications for public policy," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 74-88.
    37. Merkert, Rico & Hensher, David A., 2011. "The impact of strategic management and fleet planning on airline efficiency - A random effects Tobit model based on DEA efficiency scores," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 45(7), pages 686-695, August.
    38. Alam, Ila M Semenick & Sickles, Robin C, 2000. "Time Series Analysis of Deregulatory Dynamics and Technical Efficiency: The Case of the U.S. Airline Industry," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 41(1), pages 203-218, February.
    39. Barros, Carlos P. & Liang, Qi Bin & Peypoch, Nicolas, 2013. "The technical efficiency of US Airlines," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 139-148.
    40. Ouellette, Pierre & Petit, Patrick & Tessier-Parent, Louis-Philippe & Vigeant, Stéphane, 2010. "Introducing regulation in the measurement of efficiency, with an application to the Canadian air carriers industry," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(1), pages 216-226, January.
    41. Fan, Terence Ping Ching & Tan, Alex Tai Loong & Geng, Xuesong, 2014. "Rapid capacity expansions and failure: A trap for new airline entrants?," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 176-191.
    42. Veronique Distexhe & Sergio Perelman, 1994. "Technical Efficiency and Productivity Growth in an Era of Deregulation: the Case of Airlines," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 130(IV), pages 669-689, December.
    43. Pitfield, D.E. & Caves, R.E. & Quddus, M.A., 2010. "Airline strategies for aircraft size and airline frequency with changing demand and competition: A simultaneous-equations approach for traffic on the north Atlantic," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 151-158.
    44. Cornwell, Christopher & Schmidt, Peter & Sickles, Robin C., 1990. "Production frontiers with cross-sectional and time-series variation in efficiency levels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1-2), pages 185-200.
    45. Lewis, Herbert F. & Mallikarjun, Sreekanth & Sexton, Thomas R., 2013. "Unoriented two-stage DEA: The case of the oscillating intermediate products," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 229(2), pages 529-539.
    46. Capobianco, Heloisa Márcia Pires & Fernandes, Elton, 2004. "Capital structure in the world airline industry," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 421-434, July.
    47. Robin Sickles & David Good & Lullit Getachew, 2002. "Specification of Distance Functions Using Semi- and Nonparametric Methods with an Application to the Dynamic Performance of Eastern and Western European Air Carriers," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 133-155, January.
    48. Greer, Mark R., 2008. "Nothing focuses the mind on productivity quite like the fear of liquidation: Changes in airline productivity in the United States, 2000-2004," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 414-426, February.
    49. Douglas W. Caves & Laurits R. Christensen & Michael W. Tretheway, 1984. "Economies of Density versus Economies of Scale: Why Trunk and Local Service Airline Costs Differ," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 15(4), pages 471-489, Winter.
    50. Alessandro Cento, 2009. "The Airline Industry," Contributions to Economics, Springer, number 978-3-7908-2088-1.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Li, Ye & Wang, Yan-zhang & Cui, Qiang, 2015. "Evaluating airline efficiency: An application of Virtual Frontier Network SBM," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 1-17.
    2. Li, Ye & Wang, Yan-zhang & Cui, Qiang, 2016. "Has airline efficiency affected by the inclusion of aviation into European Union Emission Trading Scheme? Evidences from 22 airlines during 2008–2012," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 8-22.
    3. Seufert, Juergen Heinz & Arjomandi, Amir & Dakpo, K. Hervé, 2017. "Evaluating airline operational performance: A Luenberger-Hicks-Moorsteen productivity indicator," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 52-68.
    4. Wanke, Peter & Barros, C.P., 2016. "Efficiency in Latin American airlines: A two-stage approach combining Virtual Frontier Dynamic DEA and Simplex Regression," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 93-103.
    5. Wanke, Peter & Pestana Barros, Carlos & Chen, Zhongfei, 2015. "An analysis of Asian airlines efficiency with two-stage TOPSIS and MCMC generalized linear mixed models," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 110-126.
    6. Ye Li & Qiang Cui, 2017. "Airline energy efficiency measures using the Virtual Frontier Network RAM with weak disposability," Transportation Planning and Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(4), pages 479-504, May.
    7. Barros, Carlos P. & Liang, Qi Bin & Peypoch, Nicolas, 2013. "The technical efficiency of US Airlines," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 139-148.
    8. Cui, Qiang & Li, Ye, 2017. "Airline efficiency measures under CNG2020 strategy: An application of a Dynamic By-production model," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 130-143.
    9. Heshmati, Almas & C. Kumbhakar, Subal & Kim, Jungsuk, 2016. "Persistent and Transient Efficiency of International Airlines," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 444, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    10. Tsionas, Mike G. & Chen, Zhongfei & Wanke, Peter, 2017. "A structural vector autoregressive model of technical efficiency and delays with an application to Chinese airlines," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 1-10.
    11. Kottas, Angelos T. & Madas, Michael A., 2018. "Comparative efficiency analysis of major international airlines using Data Envelopment Analysis: Exploring effects of alliance membership and other operational efficiency determinants," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 1-17.
    12. Cui, Qiang & Li, Ye & Yu, Chen-lu & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2016. "Evaluating energy efficiency for airlines: An application of Virtual Frontier Dynamic Slacks Based Measure," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1231-1240.
    13. Cui, Qiang & Li, Ye, 2017. "Airline efficiency measures using a Dynamic Epsilon-Based Measure model," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 121-134.
    14. Duygun, Meryem & Prior, Diego & Shaban, Mohamed & Tortosa-Ausina, Emili, 2016. "Disentangling the European airlines efficiency puzzle: A network data envelopment analysis approach," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 2-14.
    15. Barros, Carlos Pestana & Wanke, Peter, 2015. "An analysis of African airlines efficiency with two-stage TOPSIS and neural networks," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 44, pages 90-102.
    16. Boon L Lee & Clevo Wilson & Carl A Pasurka, Jr, 2013. "The Good, the Bad and the Efficient: Productivity, efficiency and technical change in the Airline Industry, 2004:2008," School of Economics and Finance Discussion Papers and Working Papers Series 299, School of Economics and Finance, Queensland University of Technology.
    17. Yakath Ali, Nurul Syuhadah & Yu, Chunyan & See, Kok Fong, 2021. "Four decades of airline productivity and efficiency studies: A review and bibliometric analysis," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    18. Barros, Carlos Pestana & Peypoch, Nicolas, 2009. "An evaluation of European airlines' operational performance," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 525-533, December.
    19. Assaf, A. George & Josiassen, Alexander, 2012. "European vs. U.S. airlines: Performance comparison in a dynamic market," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 317-326.
    20. Lee, Boon L. & Worthington, Andrew C., 2014. "Technical efficiency of mainstream airlines and low-cost carriers: New evidence using bootstrap data envelopment analysis truncated regression," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 15-20.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jaitra:v:43:y:2015:i:c:p:46-56. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-air-transport-management/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.