Passengers’ Expectations on Airlines’ Services: Design of a Stated Preference Survey and Preliminary Outcomes

Abstract

As the competition between airlines grows, their customer-centered strategies are becoming increasingly popular. In this context, the marketing strategies are the result of investigations carried out directly on users, usually through the Customer Satisfaction Surveys. Investigating on airline passengers’ preferences represents a useful action to pursue the most convenient strategy for increasing their satisfaction and improving the provided service. With this aim, we propose the design of a Stated Preference survey and the preliminary outcomes obtained from the analysis and modelling of the collected data. A deep study of the literature review drove us to consider the land services separately from the air ones. Even if the travel experience of an airline passenger starts at the airport, only the services provided by the airlines are the object of this study. The Stated Preference survey was designed with the aim to capture the passengers’ desires on airlines’ services by proposing hypothetical scenarios to them. The survey was addressed to the whole population of the University of Calabria (Italy). A sample of 1907 survey responses was obtained. For analyzing the collected data, discrete choice models have been calibrated to obtain the weights assigned by users to each service quality aspect included in the experiment.

Understanding Airline Passengers during Covid-19 Outbreak to Improve Service Quality: Topic Modeling Approach to Complaints with Latent Dirichlet Allocation Algorithm

“…Compared with the research ( 29 , 30 , 72 ) conducted recently before the COVID-19 pandemic, previously common factors such as cabin staff, cabin cleanliness, meals, and entertainment were not voiced as customer complaints about either airline during the pandemic. This result indicates that during the early stages of the pandemic, passengers either ignored or did not have any negative experience associated with these issues on both airlines.…”

Bienvenidos A Bordo: From Task-Based Needs Analysis to Design: Spanish-Destination Flight Attendants

“…Increasing expectations for leading airlines to provide quality international service in addition to their domestic routes have created an urgency to broaden the understanding of airline employees' tasks. Flight attendants (FAs), who make up approximately 26% of Scheduled Air Transportation employees in the United States (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020), are largely regarded as the airline's public face, and research shows that FA courtesy is an essential aspect of passengers' airline selection (Bellizzi et al, 2020). In the U.S., the Spanish-speaking market is expanding as American and Latin-American citizens move between these regions for tourism, business, medical procedures, and family visits.…”

“…As a result, airlines in this region now strive to hire flight attendants (FAs) that are fluent in Spanish to increase the quality of their in-flight service. These FAs need to be effective communicators since FA courtesy is an essential aspect of passengers' airline selection (Bellizzi et al, 2020). To give adequate service, FAs must be able to demonstrate professionalism, politeness, and respect in work-related interactions (Beech, 1990).…”

Criteria of quality assessment of regional airport services - A very last picture before the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Service quality is strictly linked to customer satisfaction since service is not an item but an experience. Airport service quality perception and passengers' satisfaction are in the airport industry's interest ( Allen et al, 2020 ; Antwi et al, 2020 ; Bezerra and Gomes, 2015 ; Moro et al, 2020 ; Prentice and Kadan, 2019 ; Trischler and Lohmann, 2018 ), and many surveys have been systematically carried out on these topics, e.g., ( Barakat et al, 2021 ; Bellizzi et al, 2020 ; Bezerra and Gomes, 2016 ; Law et al, 2022 ; Lee and Yu, 2018 ; Merkert and Assaf, 2015 ). Service quality is a multidimensional construct.…”

“…Moreover, significant mediating and moderating effects of passenger affective image and travel purpose on the significant positive direct associations are found. Bellizzi et al (2020) Finding out what users of air transport look for in the services provided by the airlines, and what they would like to receive when they travel by air. Stated Preference (SP) survey, Multinomial Logit (MNL) model.…”