Although some articles have discussed the impact of an airline company's internal

structure on its operational performance (e.g.,

Zhu, 2011; Yu, 2012; Chang and Yu, 2014a; Tavassoli et al., 2014), the objective of
such models are usually to measure the efficiency of
a DMU in a specified period of time. When the period of time is composed of clearly
defined units, such as years, then there is the
opportunity to estimate efficiency that incorporates carry-over activities between
sub-units as well as linking activities (Avkiran, 2015).
Chang et al. (2016) and Olfat et al. (2016) applied dynamic NDEA models to measure
airport performance with considering the
sustainable development. In order to pursue sustainable development, airline
companies also care the cross-period performance change
rather than the one-shot efficiency evaluation. Recently, Chou et al. (2016)
developed a meta dynamic NDEA model to evaluate the
meta-efficiency of 35 international airlines with the production and consumption
processes from 2007 to 2009. They argued that output
consumption is substantially different from output production since airline
services cannot be stored. Omrani and Soltanzadeh (2016)
proposed a relational dynamic NDEA model to measure the efficiencies of 8 airlines
in Iran over 2010�2012 with considering the
interaction between time periods and divisions (production and consumption
divisions). However, there exists a diversity of definition
on what carry-over activities should be used as inputs of a division and outputs of
another division. Chou et al. (2016) assumed that net
revenues and accident occurrence from a previous period are respectively an
desirable input and an undesirable input to the consumption division in a
subsequent period. Omrani and Soltanzadeh (2016) considered that the number of
seats offered by the fleet as a
carry-over activity in consumption division.