During the COVID-19 pandemic period, all airlines experienced a severe impact and the route operating cost is very susceptible to the impact of flight duration and aviation fuel prices. This paper analyzes the operation performance of Beibu Gulf airlines (low cost airline company) with data envelopment analysis CCR model in pre-COVID-19 pandemic period. Under the domestic vigorous promotion of tourism development and people's huge demand for travel, the airlines in mainland China continue rapid development, which accelerates the emergence of local airlines other than the four major airlines and leads to increasingly fierce operation competition in the civil aviation industry. Behind the competition among airlines, the operational performance of airlines can best reflect the company's development status. In this context, airlines should choose appropriate operational strategies to strengthen its competitiveness and operational capabilities. The DEA model is a mature input-output research tool, and there have been many studies related to operational performance of the aviation industry. By using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) solver software, the input and output indicators from 2017 to 2019 are analyzed. Preliminary results show that routes and oil price factors have not reached effective status. Beibu Gulf Airlines gradually shifts to low-cost mode, the faced challenges are as follows: 1. The competition among domestic low-cost airlines; 2. The current poor overall service quality of low-cost airlines as evaluated by customers; 3. How to arrange routes, flight, service strategy, etc. Airbus uses enhanced aviation systems for this series of aircraft to improve the overall reliability of the aircraft, reduce maintenance and spare parts costs, thus helping airlines greatly reduce maintenance costs, which is very beneficial to low-cost airlines. Based on this, this paper puts forward some suggestions, such as optimizing routes, developing feeder flights in second tier cities of popular destinations, controlling fuel costs, making low-cost aviation fuel reserves, reducing the weight of passengers' carry-on luggage or charging additional baggage charges.