Airline strategy research: A bibliometric and thematic analysis (1980–2025)

Research on strategic management in airlines has rapidly expanded since its inception in the 1980s, with studies providing valuable insights into topics such as alliances, competitiveness, sustainability, and digitalisation. To contribute to this effort, the present study presents an integrative bibliometric analysis of 306 documents indexed in either the Web of Science or Scopus (1980–2025). Using Bibliometrix (R), a performance analysis indicated that although this research topic shows steady growth, its citation impact is concentrated among a limited number of authors, institutions, and specialist journals. Competitive advantage, service quality, alliances, low-cost airlines, financial performance, business strategy, revenue management, and pricing strategy were identified as regularly studied themes with strong interconnections and depth within their respective topics. COVID-19 and sustainability were among the trending topics, but despite their importance, emerging topics such as air cargo, digital transformation, and decision support analytics have not yet been significantly targeted in this literature strand. Based on these insights, we provide a conceptual framework to understand strategic priorities in the airline sector and to identify future research opportunities.