Assessing The Impact of Airlines' Strategic Decisions in Fleet Planning on Profitability by Implementing Panel Data Analysis

Abstract

This study investigates the impact on airline profitability of different types of aircraft that airlines choose as a strategic decision for their flight operations. Dataset were gathered from MIT Airline Data Project for ten airlines operating in the USA for five-year period between 2015-2019. Three different panel data models- Pooled, Fixed Effects, and Random Effects- were employed to examine the effects of aircraft types (small narrow-body, large narrow-body, and wide-body) on profitability. Plm package of R language was used to create panel data models. As a conclusion, Fixed Effects Panel Data Model proved to be the most successful in explaining profit variation in all dataset. Variables determining airline profits change according to the airline specifications and are not time-dependent.