Evaluation of Financial and Operational Sustainability with Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Methods: An Application in the US Airline Market

Abstract The aim of this study is to investigate the multi-dimensional effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the sustainability performance of airlines in the U.S. airline market, examine the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on airline business models, and compare the financial and operational performance of airlines before, during and after Covid-19 pandemic period. In this context, the financial and operational performance of 6 traditional and 5 LCC airlines for the period 2019-2022 was analyzed using the Merec-based Marcos and Cobra methods. First, the financial and operational data for airlines were weighted using the Merec method. Subsequently, using the Marcos and Cobra methods, the financial and operational performance rankings of airlines were determined. According to the rankings obtained through the Marcos and Cobra methods, the airlines with the best performance were American Airlines, Delta Airlines, and Southwest Airlines. Additionally, there was a significant similarity in the performance rankings of all airlines in the sample before and after the Covid-19 pandemic.