Latent factors on the assessment of service quality in an Italian peripheral airport

Abstract

Compared to the other public transport systems, air transport has received limited attention on the assessment of service quality. This paper aims to explore the factors employed to assess airport service quality, taking as case study the International Airport of Lamezia Terme, a peripheral airport placed in the south of Italy. Specifically, through a Principal Component Analysis latent factors influencing service quality are identified and the dimensionality of the phenomenon is reduced. After that, a Structural Equation Modelling approach is performed in order to define the relationships among the latent variables, and between the observed variables and the latent ones. For these purposes, we analyse a database derived from Customer Satisfaction Surveys conducted during 2015-2016 in the Lamezia Terme airport. The results confirm that overall airport service quality is significantly related to latent factors such as accessibility to the services, control operations and environment in the terminal.