2025/12/26 by Qingxin He, Jonathan Lee · 1 voice
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Aviation Industry Analysis and Trends #COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts #International Law and Aviation
paper · doi:10.1080/00036846.2025.2607066
openalex created_date 2025/12/26 · openalex publication_date 2025/12/26 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/14
This paper examines airline service quality, especially on-time performance, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Event studies using a comprehensive five-year panel of U.S. domestic flights find that quality briefly improved after the pandemic declaration when traffic was low. However, quality deteriorated since the vaccine rollout, even though flight volume hasn’t fully recovered. Consumers continue to face longer delays and tarmac waits in 2024 compared to pre-pandemic levels. Results are robust across all airline groups, but Low-Cost Carriers consistently perform worse, likely due to their aggressive route expansion. Granger causality tests find that deteriorating airline quality is a significant contributor to elevated incidents of unruly passengers.