IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jaitra/v44-45y2015ip90-102.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An analysis of African airlines efficiency with two-stage TOPSIS and neural networks

Author

Listed:
  • Barros, Carlos Pestana
  • Wanke, Peter

Abstract

This paper presents an efficiency assessment of African airlines, using the TOPSIS – Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Solution. TOPSIS is a multi-criteria decision making technique, which similar to DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis), ranks a finite set of units based on the minimisation of distance from an ideal point, and the maximisation of distance from an anti-ideal point. In this research, TOPSIS is used first in a two-stage approach, in order to assess the relative efficiency of African airlines using the most frequent indicators adopted by the literature on airlines. During the second stage, neural networks are combined with TOPSIS results, as part of an attempt to produce a model for airline performance which has effective predictive ability. The results reveal that network size-related variables – economies of scope, are the most important variables for explaining levels of efficiency in the African airline industry, although the impact of fleet mix and public ownership cannot be neglected.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jaitra:v:44-45:y:2015:i::p:90-102
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2015.03.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969699715000241
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2015.03.002?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. Corrente, Salvatore & Greco, Salvatore & Słowiński, Roman, 2013. "Multiple Criteria Hierarchy Process with ELECTRE and PROMETHEE," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 820-846.
    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. Hatami-Marbini, Adel & Tavana, Madjid, 2011. "An extension of the Electre I method for group decision-making under a fuzzy environment," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 373-386, August.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. Tim Coelli & Antonio Estache & Sergio Perelman & Lourdes Trujillo, 2003. "A Primer on Efficiency Measurement for Utilities and Transport Regulators," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15149, December.
    7. 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.
    8. Wang, Bing & Nistor, Ioan & Murty, Tad & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2014. "Efficiency assessment of hydroelectric power plants in Canada: A multi criteria decision making approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 112-121.
    9. 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.
    10. D.S. Prasada Rao & Christopher J. O'Donnell & George E. Battese, 2003. "Metafrontier Functions for the Study of Inter-regional Productivity Differences," CEPA Working Papers Series WP012003, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    11. Opricovic, Serafim & Tzeng, Gwo-Hshiung, 2007. "Extended VIKOR method in comparison with outranking methods," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 178(2), pages 514-529, April.
    12. D Bouyssou, 1999. "Using DEA as a tool for MCDM: some remarks," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 50(9), pages 974-978, September.
    13. Sjögren, Stefan & Söderberg, Magnus, 2011. "Productivity of airline carriers and its relation to deregulation, privatisation and membership in strategic alliances," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 228-237, March.
    14. 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.
    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. Wilkinson,Nick, 2005. "Managerial Economics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521526258.
    17. Yoram Wind & Thomas L. Saaty, 1980. "Marketing Applications of the Analytic Hierarchy Process," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(7), pages 641-658, July.
    18. Zinan Liu & E. L. Lynk, 1999. "Evidence on market structure of the deregulated US airline industry," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(9), pages 1083-1092.
    19. 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.
    20. John C. Panzar & Robert D. Willig, 1977. "Economies of Scale in Multi-Output Production," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 91(3), pages 481-493.
    21. 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.
    22. 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.
    23. George Battese & D. Rao & Christopher O'Donnell, 2004. "A Metafrontier Production Function for Estimation of Technical Efficiencies and Technology Gaps for Firms Operating Under Different Technologies," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 91-103, January.
    24. Ramanathan, Usha, 2013. "Aligning supply chain collaboration using Analytic Hierarchy Process," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 431-440.
    25. Wing Chow, Clement Kong, 2010. "Measuring the productivity changes of Chinese airlines: The impact of the entries of non-state-owned carriers," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 16(6), pages 320-324.
    26. Sheu, Jiuh-Biing, 2008. "A hybrid neuro-fuzzy analytical approach to mode choice of global logistics management," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 189(3), pages 971-986, September.
    27. R. D. Banker & A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1984. "Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(9), pages 1078-1092, September.
    28. 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.
    29. Bilbao-Terol, Amelia & Arenas-Parra, Mar & Cañal-Fernández, Verónica & Antomil-Ibias, José, 2014. "Using TOPSIS for assessing the sustainability of government bond funds," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 1-17.
    30. 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.
    31. 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.
    32. 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.
    33. 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.
    34. Oum, Tae Hoon & Yu, Chunyan, 1995. "A productivity comparison of the world's major airlines," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 181-195.
    35. Panzar, John C & Willig, Robert D, 1981. "Economies of Scope," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(2), pages 268-272, May.
    36. Bilotkach, Volodymyr & Hüschelrath, Kai, 2012. "Airline alliances and antitrust policy: The role of efficiencies," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 76-84.
    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. Mallikarjun, Sreekanth, 2015. "Efficiency of US airlines: A strategic operating model," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 46-56.
    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. 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.
    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. 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.
    11. Chen, Zhongfei & Tzeremes, Panayiotis & Tzeremes, Nickolaos G., 2018. "Convergence in the Chinese airline industry: A Malmquist productivity analysis," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 77-86.
    12. Chen, Zhongfei & Wanke, Peter & Antunes, Jorge Junio Moreira & Zhang, Ning, 2017. "Chinese airline efficiency under CO2 emissions and flight delays: A stochastic network DEA model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 89-108.
    13. 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.
    14. 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.
    15. 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.
    16. 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).
    17. Peter Wanke & Carlos Barros & Nkanga Pedro João Macanda, 2016. "Predicting Efficiency in Angolan Banks: A Two-Stage TOPSIS and Neural Networks Approach," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 84(3), pages 461-483, September.
    18. Ying Li & Tai‐Yu Lin & Yung‐ho Chiu & Shu‐Ning Lin & Tzu‐Han Chang, 2021. "Impact of alliances and delay rate on airline performance," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(6), pages 1607-1618, September.
    19. 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.
    20. 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.

    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:44-45:y:2015:i::p:90-102. 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.