Analysing group‐ and metatechnology efficiencies and technology gap of airlines for a sustainable future

Airline performance evaluation, which involves incorporating sustainable concepts, provides stakeholders and managers with an objective basis for decision‐making. This evaluation considers not only conventional metrics but also environmental impacts, contributing to the advancement of sustainable development goals. This study incorporates a two‐stage network of airline operations, which implies that airlines utilise limited resources to meet their service capacity in the first stage and generate passenger and cargo services alongside carbon emissions in the second stage. The study proposes a union dynamic network data envelopment analysis model, which integrates group technology and meta‐technology into a unified model. This model not only solves the unreasonable technology gap ratio problem but also accounts for the technological heterogeneity (whether or not to participate in a strategic alliance) and the dynamic efficiency of different airlines in the network structure during different operation periods. A sample of 24 global airlines from 2017 to 2019 is used in the study. The empirical results show that the dynamic total meta‐efficiency of the alliance group is significantly greater than that of the nonalliance group over the 3 years. This suggests that joining a strategic alliance has a positive effect on airlines' operational efficiency while reinforcing their commitment to sustainability initiatives.