Carbon neutral growth from 2020 strategy and airline environmental inefficiency: A Network Range Adjusted Environmental Data Envelopment Analysis

In this paper, we analyze the impacts of the Carbon Neutral Growth from 2020 strategy (CNG2020 strategy) on airline environmental inefficiency based on the predicted data of 29 international airlines during 2021-2023. The data is predicted through BP neural network. Following the principle of CNG2020 strategy, we calculate the emission limit for each airline. Then we propose a new model, Network Range Adjusted Environmental DEA, to discuss the environmental inefficiency change between the conditions with CNG2020 strategy and without CNG2020 strategy. The main findings are: 1. Garuda Indonesia has the largest inefficiency during 2021-2023, while Singapore is the benchmarking airline with the best performance. 2. For most airlines, CNG2020 strategy has a positive impact on their efficiency improvement. 3. The decrease of operating expenses slacks and the feasible expansion of total revenue are the main reasons for inefficiency decrease.