Providing good service quality and customer satisfaction for airline ground services

Abstract

Airline Industry has seen constant growth in the passenger aviation sector over the years. The profits though, have not risen much because the competition has stiffened and fluctuating oil prices have been a cause of concern as well. Price wars have been a short-term strategy for the airlines to gain a bigger market share and retain customers. For any airline organisation to be competitive it needs to have a long-term strategy with a firm focus on its customers. Airline ground services have been an area where airlines lose revenues and customers. However, now airlines have shifted their focus from price wars to customer centric service to maintain. This research is focused on understanding customer preferences for airline ground services mainly for passengers from China, USA, countries of European Union, Indonesia and India. To understand the customers preference for airline ground services, this research takes place in 3 steps. First step consists of literature review and theoretical background. The theoretical background looks into the types of service quality measurement models. The literature discusses specially between Grönroos model and SERVQUAL model, as these are most widely used models. The theoretical background looks into the baggage handling process and security aspects so that the attributes to the research model can be built. Second, step consists of semi-structured interviews with passengers who fly frequently. The interviews with the passengers helped verify and validate the research model. Finally, through a survey the data was gathered and using Best Worst Method (BWM) the preferred main criteria and sub-criteria were calculated in the excel solver. It was found that reliability and responsiveness were the two most important criteria while assurance was the least important criteria. To understand preferences as per nationality one-way ANOVA test was done. the One-Way ANOVA results for comparison between various nationalities showed that the output was significant for responsiveness criteria, and Word of Mouth. Cluster analysis was done to group respondents on their similarities. The results of the study are important for airline managers, airport managers and academians. This model will help the managers find a model on which they can build on in the future. A study can be done by managers to understand the service delivery of their organisation based on which with help of these results airlines should be able to successfully guide strategic initiatives for airline ground services. Furthermore, this research model can be used for markets other than airline markets. On the other hand for academians, BWM is used for the first time with SERVQUAL model for airline ground services. This combination of BWM with SERVQUAL can be used by academians for future study for any other market. Furthermore, this research model with attributes can be used for future studies of airline ground services.