The nature and prevalence of the use of performance measurement techniques by airlines

This paper describes the nature and prevalence of the use of performance measurement techniques by airlines. The authors draw on evidence from an international survey of the largest 200 airlines in terms of total passengers carried per annum. The results provide empirical insight into the use of performance measurement, benchmarking activities and other performance management techniques. The survey revealed a very high utilization of benchmarking and quality management techniques by airlines, and evidence that certain measures are considered more useful than others by the airline managers.