A Literature Review of Studies Analysing Air Transport Service Quality from the Passengers’ Point of View

  • Laura Eboli Department of Civil Engineering, University of Calabria
  • Maria Grazia Bellizzi Department of Civil Engineering, University of Calabria
  • Gabriella Mazzulla Department of Civil Engineering, University of Calabria
Keywords: airport services, airlines services, service quality, passengers’ perceptions, data collection, data analysis, literature review

Abstract

Evaluating air transport service quality is fundamen-tal to ensure acceptable quality standards for users and improve the services offered to passengers and tourists. In the transportation literature there is a wide range of studies about the evaluation of public transport service quality based on passengers’ perceptions; however, more recently, the evaluation of air transport service quality is becoming a relevant issue. Evaluating service quality in air transport sector represents a more stimulating chal-lenge, given the complexity of air transport system in re-gards to the other systems; in fact, air transport service is characterised by a great variety of service aspects relat-ing to services offered by the airlines and provided by the companies managing airports. The complexity of such a service requires a deep investigation on the methods adopted for collecting and analysing the data regarding passengers’ perceptions. We propose this paper just for treating these interesting aspects and to provide an ex-haustive literature review of the studies analysing ser-vice quality from the passengers’ point of view, where the opinions of the passengers are collected by the Customer Satisfaction Surveys (CSS). We decided to select papers published within the last decade (2010–2020) in journals indexed in important databases such as Scopus and WoS.

References

Wu HC, Cheng CC. A hierarchical model of service quality in the airline industry. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management. 2013;20: 13–22. doi: 10.1016/j.jhtm.2013.05.0011.

Espino R, Martín JC, Román C. Analyzing the effect of preference heterogeneity on willingness to pay for improving service quality in an airline choice context. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review. 2008;44(4): 593–606. doi: 10.1016/j.tre.2007.05.007.

De Oña J, et al. Transit passengers’ behavioural intentions: The influence of service quality and customer satisfaction. Transportmetrica A: Transport Science. 2016;12(5): 385–412. doi: 10.1080/23249935.2016.1146365.

Echaniz E, dell’Olio L, Ibeas Á. Modelling perceived quality for urban public transport systems using weighted variables and random parameters. Transport Policy. 2018;67: 31–39. doi: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2017.05.006.

Allen J, Eboli L, Mazzulla G, de Dios Ortúzar J. Effect of critical incidents on public transport satisfaction and loyalty: An Ordinal Probit SEM-MIMIC approach. Transportation. 2020;47(1). doi: 10.1007/s11116-018-9921-44.

De Oña J, de Oña R, Eboli L, Mazzulla G. Perceived service quality in bus transit service: A structural equation approach. Transport Policy. 2013;29: 219–226. doi: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2013.07.0011.

De Oña J, de Oña R. Quality of service in public transport based on customer satisfaction surveys: A review and assessment of methodological approaches. Transportation Science. 2015;49: 605–622. doi: 10.1287/trsc.2014.0544.

Eboli L, Forciniti C, Mazzulla G. Formative and reflective measurement models for analysing transit service quality. Public Transport. 2018;10: 107–127. doi: 10.1007/s12469-017-0168-9.

IATA International Air Transport Association. World Air Transport Statistics; 2018.

Ashford N, Stanton HPM, Moore CA. Airport Operations; 1997.

Spasojevic B, Lohmann G, Scott N. Systematic literature review on air transport and tourism: Analysis from 54 journals during the period 2000-2014. CAUTHE 2016: The Changing Landscape of Tourism and Hospitality: The Impact of Emerging Markets and Emerging Destinations, Feb. 2016, Sidney, Australia; 2016. p. 293–313. https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=900237503318745;res=IELBUS.

Ginieis M, Sánchez-Rebull MV, Campa-Planas F. The academic journal literature on air transport: Analysis using systematic literature review methodology. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2012;19(1): 31–35. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2011.12.005.

Liou JJH, Tang CH, Yeh WC, Tsai CY. A decision rules approach for improvement of airport service quality. Expert Systems with Applications. 2011;38(11): 13723–13730. doi: 10.1016/j.eswa.2011.04.168.

Bogicevic V, Yang W, Bilgihan A, Bujisic M. Airport service quality drivers of passenger satisfaction. Tourism Review. 2013;68(4): 3–18. doi: 10.1108/TR-09-2013-0047.

Horonjeff R, McKelvey F, Sproule W, Young S. Planning and Design of Airports; 2010.

Bezerra GCL, Gomes CF. Measuring airport service quality: A multidimensional approach. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2016;53: 85–93. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2016.02.001.

Liu D. Measuring aeronautical service efficiency and commercial service efficiency of East Asia airport companies: An application of Network Data Envelopment Analysis. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2016;52: 11–22. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2015.12.001.

Pantouvakis A, Renzi MF. Exploring different nationality perceptions of airport service quality. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2016;52: 90–98. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2015.12.005.

ACI. Guide to Airport Performance Measures; 2012.

Geng Y, et al. Impact of individual IEQ factors on passengers’ overall satisfaction in Chinese airport terminals. Building and Environment. 2017;112: 241–249. doi: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2016.11.040.

Sricharoenpramong S. Service quality improvement of ground staff at Don Mueang International Airport. Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences. 2018;39(1): 15–21. doi: 10.1016/j.kjss.2017.12.001.

Park JW, Jung SY. Transfer passengers’ perceptions of airport service quality: A case study of Incheon International Airport. International Business Research. 2011;4(3): 75–82. doi: 10.5539/ibr.v4n3p75.

Allen J, et al. Service quality in a mid-sized air terminal: A SEM-MIMIC ordinal probit accounting for travel, sociodemographic, and user-type heterogeneity. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2020;84: 101780. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2020.101780.

Arif M, Gupta A, Williams A. Customer service in the aviation industry - An exploratory analysis of UAE airports. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2013;32: 1–7. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2013.05.001.

Bezerra GCL, Gomes CF. The effects of service quality dimensions and passenger characteristics on passenger’s overall satisfaction with an airport. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2015;44–45: 77–81. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2015.03.001.

Bezerra GCL, Gomes CF. Determinants of passenger loyalty in multi-airport regions: Implications for tourism destination. Tourism Management Perspectives. 2019;31: 145–158. doi: 10.1016/j.tmp.2019.04.003.

Bezerra GCL, Gomes CF. Antecedents and consequences of passenger satisfaction with the airport. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2020;83: 101766. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2020.101766.

Ceccato V, Masci S. Airport environment and passengers’ satisfaction with safety. Journal of Applied Security Research. 2017;12(3): 356–373. doi: 10.1080/19361610.2017.1315696.

Del Chiappa G, Martin JC, Roman C. Service quality of airports’ food and beverage retailers: A fuzzy approach. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2016;53: 105–113. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2016.02.002.

Lubbe B, Douglas A, Zambellis J. An application of the airport service quality model in South Africa. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2011;17(4): 224–227. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2010.08.001.

Nesset E, Helgesen Ø. Effects of switching costs on customer attitude loyalty to an airport in a multi-airport region. Transportation Research Part A. 2014;67: 240–253. doi: 10.1016/j.tra.2014.07.003.

Pandey MM. Evaluating the service quality of airports in Thailand using fuzzy multi-criteria decision making method. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2016;57: 241–249. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2016.08.014.

Prentice C, Kadan M. The role of airport service quality in airport and destination choice. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. 2019;47: 40–48. doi: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2018.10.006.

Tsafarakis S, Kokotas T, Pantouvakis A. A multiple criteria approach for airline passenger satisfaction measurement and service quality improvement. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2018;68: 61–75. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2017.09.010.

Brida JG, Moreno-Izquierdo L, Zapata-Aguirre S. Customer perception of service quality: The role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) at airport functional areas. Tourism Management Perspectives. 2016;20: 209–216. doi: 10.1016/j.tmp.2016.09.003.

Hong SJ, Choi D, Chae J. Exploring different airport users’ service quality satisfaction between service providers and air travelers. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. 2020;52: 101917. doi: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2019.101917.

Jiang H, Zhang Y. An assessment of passenger experience at Melbourne Airport. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2016a;54: 88–92. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2016.04.002.

Rocha PM, de Barros AP, Silva GB, Gomes Costa H. Analysis of the operational performance of Brazilian airport terminals: A multicriteria approach with De Borda-AHP integration. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2016;51: 19–26. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2015.11.003.

Tseng CC. An IPA-Kano model for classifying and diagnosing airport service attributes. Research in Transportation Business and Management. 2020;37: 100499. doi: 10.1016/j.rtbm.2020.100499.

Suárez-Alemán A, Jiménez JL. Quality assessment of airport performance from the passengers’ perspective. Research in Transportation Business and Management. 2016;20: 13–19. doi: 10.1016/j.rtbm.2016.04.004.

Gitto S, Mancuso P. Improving airport services using sentiment analysis of the websites. Tourism Management Perspectives. 2017;22: 132–136. doi: 10.1016/j.tmp.2017.03.008.

Martin-Domingo L, Martín JC, Mandsberg G. Social media as a resource for sentiment analysis of Airport Service Quality (ASQ). Journal of Air Transport Management. 2019;78: 106–115. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2019.01.004.

Lee K, Yu C. Assessment of airport service quality: A complementary approach to measure perceived service quality based on Google reviews. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2018;71: 28–44. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2018.05.004.

Kuo MS, Liang GS. Combining VIKOR with GRA techniques to evaluate service quality of airports under fuzzy environment. Expert Systems with Applications. 2011;38(3): 1304–1312. doi: 10.1016/j.eswa.2010.07.003.

Lupo T. Fuzzy ServPerf model combined with ELECTRE III to comparatively evaluate service quality of international airports in Sicily. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2015;42: 249–259. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2014.11.006.

Martilla JA, James JC. Importance-Performance Analysis. Journal of Marketing. 1977;41(1): 77–79. doi: 10.2307/1250495.

Tsaur SH, Chang TY, Yen CH. The evaluation of airline service quality by fuzzy MCDM. Tourism Management. 2002;23(2): 107–115. doi: 10.1016/S0261-5177(01)00050-4.

Namukasa J. The influence of airline service quality on passenger satisfaction and loyalty the case of Uganda airline industry. TQM Journal. 2013;25(5): 520–532. doi: 10.1108/TQM-11-2012-0092.

Suki NM. Passenger satisfaction with airline service quality in Malaysia: A structural equation modeling approach. Research in Transportation Business and Management. 2014;10: 26–32. doi: 10.1016/j.rtbm.2014.04.001.

Hu KC, Hsiao MW. Quality risk assessment model for airline services concerning Taiwanese airlines. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2016;53: 177–185. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2016.03.006.

Basfirinci C, Mitra A. A cross cultural investigation of airlines service quality through integration of Servqual and the Kano model. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2015;42: 239–248. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2014.11.005.

Leong LY, Hew TS, Lee VH, Ooi KB. An SEM-artificial-neural-network analysis of the relationships between SERVPERF, customer satisfaction and loyalty among low-cost and full-service airline. Expert Systems with Applications. 2015;42(19): 6620–6634. doi: 10.1016/j.eswa.2015.04.043.

Parasuraman A, Zeithaml V, Berry LL. SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. Journal of Retailing. 1988. doi: 10.1016/S0148-2963(99)00084-3.

Shah FT, Syed Z, Imam A, Raza A. The impact of airline service quality on passengers’ behavioral intentions using passenger satisfaction as a mediator. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2020;85: 101815. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2020.101815.

Liou JJH, Hsu CC, Yeh WC, Lin RH. Using a modified grey relation method for improving airline service quality. Tourism Management. 2011;32(6): 1381–1388. doi: 10.1016/j.tourman.2011.01.013.

Liou JJH, Tsai CY, Lin RH, Tzeng GH. A modified VIKOR multiple-criteria decision method for improving domestic airlines service quality. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2011;17(2): 57–61. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2010.03.004.

Farooq MS, et al. Impact of service quality on customer satisfaction in Malaysia airlines: A PLS-SEM approach. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2018;67: 169–180. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2017.12.008.

Han S, Ham SS, Yang I, Baek S. Passengers’ perceptions of airline lounges: Importance of attributes that determine usage and service quality measurement. Tourism Management. 2012;33(5): 1103–1111. doi: 10.1016/j.tourman.2011.11.023.

Hussain R, Al Nasser A, Hussain YK. Service quality and customer satisfaction of a UAE-based airline: An empirical investigation. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2015;42: 167–175. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2014.10.001.

Kuo CW, Jou, RC. Asymmetric response model for evaluating airline service quality: An empirical study in cross-strait direct flights. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice. 2014;62: 63–70. doi: 10.1016/j.tra.2014.02.004.

Medina-Muñoz DR, Medina-Muñoz RD, Suárez-Cabrera MÁ. Determining important attributes for assessing the attractiveness of airlines. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2018;70: 45–56. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2018.01.002.

Tahanisaz S, Shokuhyar S. Evaluation of passenger satisfaction with service quality: A consecutive method applied to the airline industry. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2020;83: 101764. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2020.101764.

Chou CC, et al. An evaluation of airline service quality using the fuzzy weighted SERVQUAL method. Applied Soft Computing Journal. 2011;11(2): 2117–2128. doi: 10.1016/j.asoc.2010.07.010.

Li W, et al. A hybrid approach based on fuzzy AHP and 2-tuple fuzzy linguistic method for evaluation in-flight service quality. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2017;60: 49–64. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2017.01.006.

Atalay KD, Atalay B, Isin, FB. FIPIA with information entropy: A new hybrid method to assess airline service quality. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2019;76: 67–77. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2019.02.004.

Kuo MS. A novel interval-valued fuzzy MCDM method for improving airlines’ service quality in Chinese cross-strait airlines. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review. 2011;47(6): 1177–1193. doi: 10.1016/j.tre.2011.05.007.

Jiang H, Zhang Y. An investigation of service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty in China’s airline market. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2016b;57: 80–88. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2016.07.008.

Kos Koklic M, Kukar-Kinney M, Vegelj S. An investigation of customer satisfaction with low-cost and full-service airline companies. Journal of Business Research. 2017;80: 188–196. doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.05.015.

Keshavarz Ghorabaee M, et al. A new hybrid simulation-based assignment approach for evaluating airlines with multiple service quality criteria. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2017;63: 45–60. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2017.05.008.

Bellizzi MG, Eboli L, Mazzulla G. An online survey for the quality assessment of airlines’ services. Research in Transportation Business and Management. 2020;37: 100515. doi: 10.1016/j.rtbm.2020.100515.

De Jager JW, Van Zyl D, Toriola AL. Airline service quality in South Africa and Italy. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2012;25: 19–21. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2012.04.002.

Lim SS, Tkaczynski A. Origin and money matter: The airline service quality expectations of international students. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management. 2017;31: 244–252. doi: 10.1016/j.jhtm.2017.03.001.

Martín JC, Román C, Espino R. Evaluating frequent flyer programs from the air passengers’ perspective. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2011;17(6): 364–368. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2011.02.008.

Wen CH, Chen TN, Fu C. A factor-analytic generalized nested logit model for determining market position of airlines. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice. 2014;62: 71–80. doi: 10.1016/j.tra.2014.02.001.

Wen CH, Lai SC. Latent class models of international air carrier choice. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review. 2010;46(2): 211–221. doi: 10.1016/j.tre.2009.08.004.

Kumar S, Zymbler M. A machine learning approach to analyze customer satisfaction from airline tweets. Journal of Big Data. 2019;6: 1–16. doi: 10.1186/s40537-019-0224-1.

Lucini FR, Tonetto LM, Fogliatto FS, Anzanello MJ. Text mining approach to explore dimensions of airline customer satisfaction using online customer reviews. Journal of Air Transport Management. 2020;83: 101760. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2019.101760.

Park S, Lee JS, Nicolau JL. Understanding the dynamics of the quality of airline service attributes: Satisfiers and dissatisfiers. Tourism Management. 2020;81: 104163. doi: 10.1016/j.tourman.2020.104163.

Erdil ST, Yildiz O. Measuring service quality and a comparative analysis in the passenger carriage of airline industry. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. 2011;24: 1232–1242. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.09.117.

Nocera S, Cavallaro F. The ancillary role of CO2 reduction in urban transport plans. Transportation Research Procedia. 2014;3: 760-769. doi: 10.1016/j.trpro.2014.10.055.

Hernandez S, Monzon A, de Oña R. Urban transport interchanges: A methodology for evaluating perceived quality. Transportation Research Part A. 2016;84: 31–43. doi: 10.1016/j.tra.2015.08.008.

Published
2022-03-31
How to Cite
1.
Eboli L, Bellizzi MG, Mazzulla G. A Literature Review of Studies Analysing Air Transport Service Quality from the Passengers’ Point of View. Promet [Internet]. 2022Mar.31 [cited 2024Apr.24];34(2):253-69. Available from: https://traffic.fpz.hr/index.php/PROMTT/article/view/4020
Section
Articles