Customer Expectation, Satisfaction and Loyalty Relationship in Turkish Airline Industry

Abstract

In recent years, the development rate of aviation industry in Turkey has ascended faster than the rate of the worldaviation industry. The number of airlines has been increasing with the supports of Turkish government to vitalizethe aviation sector. Therefore, for airline companies, understanding passenger expectations, satisfaction andloyalty relationship has become very important because of tough competition in the industry.The main objective of this study is to find therelationship among the above mentioned variables in Turkishairline industry. As data collecting method in the study, 5-point Likert type self-report questionnaire includingdemographic variables was used. The survey was conducted in June and July 2012 with voluntary participationof the passengers waiting in both the domestic and international lines’ areas in four main Turkish airports. Thedata was collected from 421 domestic flight passengers and 400 for international flight passengers. To analyzethe data, structural equation modeling was applied.The results showed that reliability and facilities had a significant positive effecton customer satisfaction. Inaddition customer satisfaction was found to be a significant determinant of customer loyalty. Based on thefindings, some suggestions for airline management were made and also study limitations were discussed.