The change trend and influencing factors of civil aviation safety efficiency: The case of Chinese airline companies

While the issue of civil aviation safety has attracted serious public concern, notably few studies have investigated civil aviation safety efficiency. In this paper, a definition of civil aviation safety efficiency is proposed for the first time. Inputs to the proposed civil aviation safety efficiency model are labor, capital, fund and technology. The outputs are the percent of the passenger turnover volume without accidents or incidents to the total passenger turnover volume and Net profit rate. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Malmquist index are used to calculate the civil aviation safety efficiency of ten Chinese airline companies from 2008 to 2012, and the Panel Regression Model is used to identify the important influencing factors of civil aviation safety efficiency. The results indicate that technology development is not the most important factor affecting the civil aviation safety efficiency of Chinese airlines. Instead, the most important factor is investments in training and developing aviation security staff and airline pilots. The research conclusions could provide guidance for decision makers on civil aviation safety.