IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/rnd/arjebs/v5y2013i11p752-761.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Airline Service Quality in South Africa and Malaysia- An International Customer Expectations Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Johan W de

Abstract

This study attempts to identify the various service and value factors that matter most to domestic airline passengers in South Africa and to benchmark it with the domestic airline industry in Malaysia that has similar airline services. A survey methodology involving face-to-face interviews was employed to conduct interviews with 196 participants from South Africa and 189 from Malaysia. Respondents were targeted on a convenience basis. Despite the use of this non-probabilistic sampling method, the data that were yielded showed high levels of internal consistency. A random splitting of each of the two datasets (i.e. South Africa and Malaysia) and subsequent comparison of firstly, demographic characteristics and secondly, the average ratings of key items revealed no significant differences, thus confirming repeatability or reproducibility of measurement. Trained fieldworkers assisted with the interviews. The findings revealed the following. The first research objective identifies those aspects that respondents typically consider most and least important when travelling on a domestic airline. The mean importance ratings obtained for each of the service items were calculated and ranked from highest to lowest scores. The items were ranked within the four broader service dimensions for the two samples. The first dimension is labelled ‘convenience of booking’ and the results reveal considerable similarities between the two samples, with both South African and Malaysian respondents rating online booking opportunity as the most important aspect within these dimensions. The second service dimension investigated in the study is ‘cabin service scapes’. The item that was rated most important by both South African and Malaysian respondents was comforts of the seats. The third service dimension labelled ‘cabin crew’. Cabin crew's credibility obtained the highest average importance rating. The last dimension studied was labelled ‘timeliness of flight’. The top rated item was on-time departures and arrivals.

Suggested Citation

  • Johan W de, 2013. "Airline Service Quality in South Africa and Malaysia- An International Customer Expectations Approach," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 5(11), pages 752-761.
  • Handle: RePEc:rnd:arjebs:v:5:y:2013:i:11:p:752-761
    DOI: 10.22610/jebs.v5i11.448
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ojs.amhinternational.com/index.php/jebs/article/view/448/448
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://ojs.amhinternational.com/index.php/jebs/article/view/448
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22610/jebs.v5i11.448?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Park, Jin-Woo & Robertson, Rodger & Wu, Cheng-Lung, 2004. "The effect of airline service quality on passengers’ behavioural intentions: a Korean case study," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 10(6), pages 435-439.
    2. Chris K. Zane & Pedro M. Reyes, 2010. "Airlines’ plight: where has all the luggage gone?," Management Research Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 33(7), pages 767-782, June.
    3. Law, Rob & Qi, Shanshan & Buhalis, Dimitrios, 2010. "Progress in tourism management: A review of website evaluation in tourism research," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 297-313.
    4. Park, Jin-Woo, 2007. "Passenger perceptions of service quality: Korean and Australian case studies," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 238-242.
    5. De Jager, J.W. & Van Zyl, D. & Toriola, A.L., 2012. "Airline service quality in South Africa and Italy," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 19-21.
    6. Chang, Yu-Hern & Yeh, Chung-Hsing, 2002. "A survey analysis of service quality for domestic airlines," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(1), pages 166-177, May.
    7. Aksoy, Safak & Atilgan, Eda & Akinci, Serkan, 2003. "Airline services marketing by domestic and foreign firms: differences from the customers’ viewpoint," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 9(6), pages 343-351.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maria Grazia Bellizzi & Luigi dell’Olio & Laura Eboli & Carmen Forciniti & Gabriella Mazzulla, 2020. "Passengers’ Expectations on Airlines’ Services: Design of a Stated Preference Survey and Preliminary Outcomes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-14, June.
    2. Bellizzi, Maria Grazia & dell’Olio, Luigi & Eboli, Laura & Mazzulla, Gabriella, 2021. "Detecting passengers' heterogeneity on airlines’ services using SP data," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    3. Juan de Oña & Rocio de Oña, 2015. "Quality of Service in Public Transport Based on Customer Satisfaction Surveys: A Review and Assessment of Methodological Approaches," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(3), pages 605-622, August.
    4. HakJun Song & Wenjia Ruan & Yunmi Park, 2019. "Effects of Service Quality, Corporate Image, and Customer Trust on the Corporate Reputation of Airlines," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-14, June.
    5. Samanci, Simge & Didem Atalay, Kumru & Bahar Isin, Feride, 2021. "Focusing on the big picture while observing the concerns of both managers and passengers in the post-covid era," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    6. Mohammed Al Awadh, 2023. "Assessing the Quality of Sustainable Airline Services Utilizing the Multicriteria Decision-Making Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-19, April.
    7. Messner, Wolfgang, 2016. "The impact of an aircraft's service environment on perceptions of in-flight food quality," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 123-130.
    8. Shah, Faisal Tehseen & Syed, Zaineb & Imam, Abeer & Raza, Aiman, 2020. "The impact of airline service quality on passengers’ behavioral intentions using passenger satisfaction as a mediator," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    9. Kim, Yu Kyoung & Lee, Hyung Ryong, 2011. "Customer satisfaction using low cost carriers," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 235-243.
    10. Gupta, Himanshu, 2018. "Evaluating service quality of airline industry using hybrid best worst method and VIKOR," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 35-47.
    11. Perçin, Selçuk, 2018. "Evaluating airline service quality using a combined fuzzy decision-making approach," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 48-60.
    12. Climis Raghda, 2016. "Factors Affecting Customer Retention in the Airline Industry," Journal of Management and Business Administration. Central Europe, Sciendo, vol. 24(4), pages 49-69, December.
    13. Ko, Young Dae & Kwag, Sung Il & Oh, Yonghui, 2020. "An efficient airline seat reallocation algorithm considering customer dissatisfaction," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    14. Liou, James J.H. & Tzeng, Gwo-Hshiung, 2007. "A non-additive model for evaluating airline service quality," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 131-138.
    15. Papageorgiou Í. Athina, 2016. "Service Quality And Customer Satisfaction In Air Transportation," Tourism Research Institute, Journal of Tourism Research, vol. 15(1), pages 3-20, June.
    16. Liou, James J.H. & Yen, Leon & Tzeng, Gwo-Hshiung, 2010. "Using decision rules to achieve mass customization of airline services," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 205(3), pages 680-686, September.
    17. Tahanisaz, Sahar & shokuhyar, Sajjad, 2020. "Evaluation of passenger satisfaction with service quality: A consecutive method applied to the airline industry," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    18. Surovitskikh, Svetlana & Lubbe, Berendien, 2008. "Positioning of selected Middle Eastern airlines in the South African business and leisure travel environment," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 75-81.
    19. Woo, Mina, 2019. "Assessing customer citizenship behaviors in the airline industry: Investigation of service quality and value," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 40-47.
    20. Deveci, Muhammet & Özcan, Ender & John, Robert & Öner, Sultan Ceren, 2018. "Interval type-2 hesitant fuzzy set method for improving the service quality of domestic airlines in Turkey," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 83-98.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rnd:arjebs:v:5:y:2013:i:11:p:752-761. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Muhammad Tayyab (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://ojs.amhinternational.com/index.php/jebs .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.