Financial performance and customer service: An examination using activity-based costing of 38 international airlines

This study looks at the financial performance of a set of large international airlines from North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. Efficiency measures are related to their strategically focused expenditures on operations and on customer services. The results, based on data envelopment analysis, indicate that operation management, including that of customer service attribute evaluation, may be improved through the adoption of activity-based costing analysis.