Energy efficiency of airlines and its influencing factors: A comparison between China and the United States

•The energy efficiency of Chinese and American airlines is evaluated and compared.•The evolution of total productivity and energy efficiency is investigated.•The influencing factors of energy efficiency are explored.

The development of Chinese and American airlines evidences the rise of the global aviation industry. Improving energy efficiency of airlines is critical to realize the targets of energy conservation and emissions mitigation in this industry. However, the gap of energy efficiency between Chinese and American airlines and its influencing factors has not been revealed. This study measures and compares the energy efficiency and productivity of Chinese and American airlines during 2011-2014. The results show that the average energy efficiencies of Chinese airlines lagged behind those of American airlines, and the gap of energy efficiency between these two countries' airlines was enlarging over the period of 2011-2014. Differences in fleet age, passengers per flight, share of freight traffic, firm size, and ownership of airlines are the main factors that influence the gap between energy efficiency of Chinese and American airlines. Moreover, the comparison between environmentally sensitive measurement and conventional measurement of productivity shows that the growth of total factor productivity will be underestimated without considering undesirable outputs. And technical progress contributes most to productivity growth of Chinese and American airlines.