Airlines Opt for Efficiencies That Make the System Fragile. Research in MIT Sloan Management Review Explains Why That's a False Choice Across Industries

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May 13, 2026, 07:01 ET

Studies show how rethinking performance metrics and buffers can reduce disruption even in highly streamlined operations.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- From air travel to health care, efforts to maximize efficiency often come at the cost of system resilience and leave consumers suffering from delays and system breakdowns. New research in MIT Sloan Management Review argues that efficiency and resilience do not need to be a trade-off. Carefully designed operations can accomplish both goals.

In "Resolve the Conflict Between Efficiency and Resilience" coauthors Yasin Alan, associate professor at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management, Vishal Ahuja, associate professor and a Corrigan Research Professor at Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business, and Mazhar Arıkan, associate professor and an Anderson Family Fellow at the University of Kansas School of Business, introduce three actionable strategies for organizations to proactively design their operations to build resilience into systems where efficiency is essential but breakdowns often occur.

Based on research analyzing millions of flights and airline passenger journeys in several academic studies, the authors reveal why managers do not need to treat efficiency and resilience as opposing goals. Additionally, the authors examine how choices around performance metrics, buffers, and itinerary design shape outcomes of operational disruptions. Overall, the findings show that many perceived trade-offs between efficiency and resilience are driven by how airlines design and manage their operations.

"This challenge is not unique to airlines, however," stated Alan. "Supply chain managers need to balance inventory costs against the risks of stockouts. Health care systems strive to optimize patient flows and increase throughput while maintaining quality of care. Despite the operational differences across these contexts, the fundamental challenge is the same: How can organizations design operations that are both efficient and resilient?"

Three actionable strategies that enable organizations to achieve both objectives:

Measure What Matters to Customers. Appropriate performance metrics should be easy for stakeholders to understand while accurately capturing an organization's performance objectives and customer satisfaction levels.
Avoid a One-Size-Fits-All Approach and Deploy Buffers Strategically. Embedding analytics into planning processes and securing stakeholder buy-in can ensure that buffer allocation becomes a strategic lever rather than an ad hoc decision. The rise of big data and analytical tools helps to identify pain points.
Curate Personalized Customer Options to Maximize System Performance. It is essential that organizations quantify both the revenue potential of risky options and the actual costs of disruptions that result from offering them.

"Typically, we see younger, more agile companies implementing these strategies," said Ahuja. "They tend to have more experimentational cultures and less silos. Startups with small teams wearing numerous hats can often have better success building these systems."

"But the broader lesson extends beyond startups. Organizations of any size can improve both efficiency and resilience when they deliberately design their metrics, buffers, and customer options with reliability in mind," added Arıkan.

The Research
The MIT Sloan Management Review article synthesizes insights from a broader body of peer-reviewed research conducted by the authors on airline operations. Collectively, the research shows how operational design choices influence delays, disruption spillovers, and service reliability in the airline industry, with implications for other industries facing similar challenges. The article integrates these findings to show how organizations can address the perceived conflict between efficiency and resilience by designing systems that create synergies between them.

Read the full article in the MIT Sloan Management Review article "Resolve the Conflict Between Efficiency and Resilience," which publishes at 7 a.m. ET on May 13, 2026.

About the Authors
Vishal Ahuja is an associate professor and a Corrigan Research Professor at Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business. Yasin Alan is an associate professor at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management. Mazhar Arıkan is an associate professor and an Anderson Family Fellow at the University of Kansas School of Business.

About MIT Sloan Management Review
MIT Sloan Management Review is an independent, research-based magazine and digital platform for business leaders published at the MIT Sloan School of Management. MIT SMR explores how leadership and management are transforming in a disruptive world. We help thoughtful leaders capture the exciting opportunities — and face down the challenges — created as technological, societal, and environmental forces reshape how organizations operate, compete, and create value.

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