A Quantitative Methodology for Measuring Airline Quality

Abstract

In today's competitive airline industry, it is crucial that an airline do all it can to attract and retain customers. One of the best ways to do this is by offering a quality service to consumers. Perceptions of service quality vary from person to person, but an enduring element of service quality is the consistent achievement of customer satisfaction. Satisfying customer service needs keeps present customers loyal and helps establish a base for new ones. An Airline Quality Rating scale is proposed that assesses the quality of the U.S. major airlines using comparable, objective, quantifiable, periodically published data that addresses customer satisfaction concerns. This data is not consumer opinion based, but has distinct performance characteristics that are specifically attuned to the consumer's point of view. The AQR outlined here focuses on quantitative factors to provide a more reliable and objective result in assessing service quality levels across all major domestic airlines. Combining quantifiable and readily available data provides an objective starting point for monitoring the quality of service an individual airline might be providing. This unique method of measuring quality, without the burdensome task of surveying thousands of consumers, resulted in findings synonymous with findings of a major consumer survey of 4,400 frequent flyers (Zagat 1991).