Visual Data Mining: Analysis of Airline Service Quality Attributes

The objectives of the study are to identify the key airline quality attributes from online review posts and to examine the effect of identified airline quality attributes on eWOM communication. This study employed data-mining techniques and logistic regression on 901 passenger reviews to evaluate the service quality of passenger airlines. The major contribution was identifying the most salient topics of travelers complimenting and complaining reviews. Passengers’ comments support that service, staff, cabin seat comfort, and entertainment are among the most discussed themes in positive and negative reviews. Additionally, value, seat comfort, staff/service, and catering were found to be significant predictors of airline eWOM.     

Analysis of Structural Equation Model for the Student Pleasure Travel Market: Motivation,Involvement, Satisfaction,and Destination Loyalty

Greater understanding of the model that plays a role in attracting certain visitor segments thus allows travel businesses to develop marketing strategies. This research analyzes an empirical model including push motivations, pull motivations, cognitive involvement, affective involvement, satisfaction, and loyalty to students' top domestic and international destinations. Results suggest push motivations are a good predictor of pull motivations, which in turn are considered a good predictor of cognitive involvement. Cognitive involvement is a good predictor of both affective involvement and satisfaction. Affective involvement is a good predictor of satisfaction. This study also confirms the significant association of satisfaction with destination loyalty. Hence, the proposed model provides a good quality of theoretical framework to positively predict travel demand toward domestic and international destinations.     

Understanding the dynamics of the quality of airline service attributes: Satisfiers and dissatisfiers

This research aims to determine the relationship between the quality of airline service attributes and overall satisfaction. Although a number of relevant studies have reported a linear relationship (or symmetric effect) between the two concepts, this work suggests that attribute quality exerts heterogeneous effects on satisfaction or dissatisfaction. A total of 157,035 consumer data from online reviews have been analyzed to achieve the research objective. In accordance with Herzberg, Mausner, and Snyderman’s (1959) two-factor theory, the findings of this research have determined that the quality of certain service attributes, such as cleanliness, food and beverages, and in-flight entertainment, affects the variations of positive ratings as a satisfier. Other airline service attributes, such as customer service and check-in and boarding, influence the deviations of negative ratings as a dissatisfier. Apart from airline attributes, the individual features and types of airline products have been estimated to improve the understanding of such relationships. In this regard, this study provides important implications to customer-centric marketing in an airline marketplace.     

The effect of travel purpose and self-image congruency on preference toward airline livery design and perceived service quality

This paper examines travelers’ preference for airline livery design, which is an important component of sensory experience for tourists. Based on surveys of both U.S. and South Korean respondents, this study finds that airline livery preference depends on travel purpose (i.e. business vs. vacation). Designs preferred by the two travel segments differ in terms of color tone, hue, line, and shape. Business traveler-preferred designs signal punctual, efficient, classy, and safe service; while vacation traveler-preferred designs elicit feelings of fun, friendly, and exotic service. It is also shown that travelers prefer airline livery that is congruent with their situational self-image, depending on the travel occasion at hand. In fact, self-image congruency of design is approximately half of the variance in airline livery preference. Finally, results show that self-image congruency also increases perceived service quality.     

In-Flight Service Performance and Passenger Loyalty: A Cross-National (China/Korea) Study of Travelers Using Low-Cost Carriers

While a moderate amount of empirical research has been conducted on passenger loyalty in the low-cost airline industry, there has been no research on the impacts of in-flight core- and encounter-service performance, perceived value, satisfaction, trust, or cultural influences on passenger loyalty. This study looked at these impacts in cross-national field research involving China and Korea. A survey was conducted on international flights between Busan and Qingdao. A total of 346 cases were used in data analysis. Results of the structural model showed that the proposed theoretical relationships were all significant; in-flight encounter-service performance was prominent, and value, satisfaction, and trust had a significant mediating impact. In addition, findings from the metric invariance revealed that the strength of the relationships, particularly among service performances, value, and satisfaction in the proposed model, significantly differed across Chinese and Korean passenger groups. The authors highlight key practical and research implications.     

Review of studies on airline website evaluation

The continuous growth of electronic (e) commerce prompted businesses to manage effective websites to attract customers and retain loyalty. Website evaluation has been extensively researched, but a comprehensive and globally accepted model is yet to be established in the tourism and hospitality industry. This review of studies on airline website evaluation reveals an undesirable situation. Existing literature, especially on the low-cost carrier (LCC) sector, is inadequate despite the heavy reliance of this sector on web-based sales. Neither specific nor comprehensive instruments for effectively assessing airline websites are found. Therefore, a comprehensive website evaluation model in the airline or LCC context is necessary.     

Airline Travelers' Causal Attribution of Service Failure and Its Impact on Trust and Loyalty Formation: The Moderating Role of Corporate Social Responsibility

This study examines airline travelers' causal attribution (stability and controllability) and its impact on trust and loyalty formation and investigates the moderating role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in this process. Based on a literature review, theoretical relationships between stability, controllability, CSR, trust, and loyalty were derived, and the moderating effects of CSR on relationships between stability/controllability and trust/loyalty were examined. To empirically test these theoretical relationships, quantitative data were collected from 271 airline passengers who experienced a service failure in the past year. The results provide support for effects of stability and controllability on trust as well as the effect of stability on loyalty. In addition, the perception of CSR had positive effects on trust and loyalty. Finally, a favorable CSR perception weakened the negative effects of a service failure on trust and loyalty, particularly when the failure was attributed to a stable cause. The results highlight the important role of CSR in service failure situations and have important implications for airline managers.     

Customers’ Perceived Benefits of a Frequent-Flyer Program

Customer retention has grown in importance as most firms have acknowledged that customer retention has a bearing on profitability over the long term. Firms such as airlines, hotels, retailers, and car manufacturers offer loyalty programs to their customers to reward customers for their support and encourage continuous future support from such customers. Despite the popularity of loyalty programs, little academic research has been published in respect of how customers perceive the benefits offered by loyalty programs. This paper is a first to report on research that resulted in a model that can be used to manage the benefits perceived by members of an airline’s loyalty program. The model to measure and manage members’ perceived benefits of a loyalty program for an airline has good psychometric properties and consists of three underlying dimensions, namely recognition, convenience, and exploration.     

Package and no-frills air carriers as moderators of length of stay

This article analyses the determinants of length of stay among inbound tourists arriving by air in one of the world's most popular tourist countries, Spain. Special emphasis is placed on the effects of whether tourists booked the trip themselves or as part of a package and whether they travelled by low cost (LCA) or legacy airline. An ordered logit model is estimated. Relevant explanatory variables are related to tourist preferences and characteristics, trip characteristics, stay characteristics, and activities at destination. One of the main relevant results concerns the moderating effects. For instance, length of stay among package travellers is most affected by type of destination (city vs. coast), length of LCA trip by age, and length of legacy airline trip by accommodation type.     

Achieving destination advocacy and destination loyalty through destination brand identification

Brand identification enhances customer loyalty and develops long-term relationships between the customer and the brand. However, only a few studies have explored the role of identification in building long-term and favorable relationships between tourists and a tourism destination. In this study, we propose and empirically verify destination personality congruence and destination trust as the drivers of destination brand identification, and destination advocacy and destination loyalty as its outcomes. For assessing these proposed relationships, a sample of 342 respondents was collected from foreign tourists visiting Dharamsala, which is a famous tourist destination among visitors in northern India. The results of structural equation modeling reveal that destination personality congruence significantly influences the destination loyalty through destination brand identification. In addition, destination trust emerges as a significant predictor for both destination advocacy and destination loyalty. The study offers important implications for both acadmecians and practitioners.     

Recommend or not? The influence of emotions on passengers’ intention of airline recommendation during COVID-19

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the airline industry has undoubtedly suffered serious losses. Investigation of passenger's intention to recommend an airline is urgently needed for airline companies to formulate specific retention strategies and revitalize the industry. Therefore, this study mainly sought to identify the latent factors that determine airline passenger's recommendation intention during the COVID-19 period, and investigate how the emotions expressed in passenger reviews affect their intention to recommend an airline. From the period between January 2020 and October 2021, 6798 online reviews were collected and analyzed. The results indicate that four out of eight emotional dimensions, including joy, trust, anger, and disgust, significantly influence passengers' intention to recommend. This study not only extended the applications of the expectancy-disconfirmation theory and Plutchik's emotional theory but also provided instructive suggestions for airline businesses that need to formulate marketing strategies, especially during the COVID-19 period.     

Managing Airline Passenger Satisfaction During a Delay: A Case Study Applying Consumerist Gap Concepts

Abstract

Delays occur quite commonly in airtransportation, due to the effects of weather, congestion, or technical problems. Lengthy delays often give rise to passenger complaints and demands for compensation. This paper firstly presents a general consumerist gap model of passenger satisfaction management, then applies its concepts to a batch of passenger correspondence which resulted from a very long delay. Passengers' letters to the airline were reviewed and analysed using con-sumerist gap approaches, following which discussions were held with senior airline managers to identify ways of improving responses to passengers during incidents such as the one presented in this case study.     

Self-congruity and flow as antecedents of attitude and loyalty towards a theme park brand

Brand loyalty is believed to be a sustainable advantage for theme parks. Since theme parks represent a man-made environment purposefully built for specialized market segments, studying factors that lead to brand loyalty for theme park products is of strategic importance. These factors have yet to be identified in the current literature, however. Recognizing the potential influence of self-congruity and flow in the theme park consumption experience, and thus its influence on loyalty, the current study investigated the effect of these constructs on visitor attitude and loyalty towards a theme park brand. The results revealed that both self-congruity and flow are the antecedents of visitor attitude and brand loyalty. The theoretical contributions of this study, as well as managerial implications concerning image projection, branding strategy, and park experience design, are discussed.     

Passengers’ perceptions of airline lounges: Importance of attributes that determine usage and service quality measurement

The current exploratory study investigates passengers’ perceptions of airline lounges by measuring the importance of attributes that determine usage and service quality in those facilities. Data collection was the result of a survey of airline lounge users at the Incheon International Airport, South Korea. The attributes that determine airline lounge usage categorize as: image and accessibility, atmosphere, food and beverage (F&B) service, and facility’s dimensions. Atmosphere and F&B service prove to be the most important dimensions affecting passengers’ use of the airline lounge. Service quality variables determining passengers’ perceptions of the airline lounge categorize as: atmosphere, F&B service, employee service, and facility’s dimensions. Among the service quality dimensions, F&B service was the strongest predictor of overall satisfaction and lounge revisit intention. Furthermore, the study considers the relationship of overall satisfaction and lounge revisit intention according to airline selection.     

Increasing adoption of voluntary carbon offsets among tourists

Air travellers have had the option to purchase voluntary carbon offsets (VCOs) available to them for almost a decade, yet adoption rates remain low. Drawing upon diffusion of innovations theory, and based on a sample of 449 German long-haul tourists, we analyse knowledge of VCOs, and using logit regressions, the probability of their purchasing VCOs. We investigate the profile of people who have actually purchased VCOs, unlike many earlier researchers who used stated preferences data to estimate willingness to pay. Our findings reveal that the drivers of adoption are primarily linked to lifestyle factors, including being young, adventurous, and having a vegetarian/low climate impact diet. A proportion of tourists are aware of VCOs but have not practiced offsetting to date, although they are positive towards the idea, are used to make donations, and are committed to environmental issues. Persuading travellers belonging to this group to actively engage in using VCOs is an important task for future VCO market development. It will be necessary to compare best-practice/less best practice airline policies, explore how to make VCO schemes more visible, and more closely examine the adopters market segment to improve communication strategies and encourage increased uptake of VCOs.     

What recovery options to offer for loyalty reward program members: Dollars vs. Miles?

Research shows that offering monetary compensation is effective in restoring customers’ equity perceptions following a service failure. However, little is known about loyalty reward program members’ responses to various types of recovery options. This study fills this important void by investigating two types of compensation: a discount coupon (in dollars) and bonus reward points (in miles) in the airline context. This study further investigates the boundary effect of controllability of a service failure. Our findings show that, when the flight delay is perceived as highly controllable by the airline company (i.e., scheduling error by flight crews, repatronage intention was higher in the 50-dollar discount vs. 2500 bonus miles condition. Conversely, repatronage intention did not differ between the two compensation options when the flight delay was perceived as uncontrollable i.e., inclement weather. Our findings help hospitality and tourism firms leverage service recovery initiatives for loyalty reward program members.     

Airline employee's service behavior toward different nationalities

Stereotyping of groups is unique and has influences on emotions and behaviors. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between national stereotyping, emotion and service behavior of South Korean airline employees towards passengers from four countries (China, Japan, the USA and South Korea, based on both Hofstede's cultural dimensions and the entrance rates to Korea), and whether there is a difference in constructs for each of the four countries’ passengers. South Korea was involved in this study to compare an in-group with the out-groups. Four models were acceptable, and we found that national stereotyping, emotions and service behaviors are significantly different among the four countries. The results imply that national stereotyping and cultures affect the service behavior of South Korean airline employees.     

First-Class in-Flight Services and Advertising Effectiveness: Antecedents of Customer-Centric Innovativeness and Brand Loyalty in the United States (US) Airline Industry

In this study we consider the first-class passenger market to identify in-flight service-related triggers of customer-centric innovativeness, test the effect of customer-centric innovativeness on brand loyalty, and examine the moderating role of advertising effectiveness. A series of theory-based hypotheses was examined through structural equation modeling using empirical data collected from a sample of 205 first-class airline passengers in the United States (US). The results indicate that various experiential dimensions of in-flight service designs (including food, entertainment, physical environment, and flight attendant performance/physical appearance) in the first-class passenger market had significant effects on perceived firm innovativeness. In addition, advertising effectiveness moderated the effects of in-flight food services and flight attendant physical appearance on perceived firm innovativeness. These results clearly suggest that customer-centric innovativeness is a strong driver of brand loyalty in the first-class passenger market. The study provides a theoretical basis for future research and offers some effective management methods for enhancing first-class passengers’ loyalty in the airline industry.