Passenger Expectations and Airport Service Quality: Exploring Customer Segmentation

Abstract

Understanding customer expectations is key in any service context, including indentifying the differences between customer segments. Nonetheless, they remain underresearched topics in the airport industry, with limited empirical evidence on the nature of passenger expectations and how they relate to the service experienced. Therefore, the objectives of this research were twofold: first, to estimate a structural model of the relationships between customer expectations and airport service quality dimensions; second, to examine the differences between groups of passengers. Sample data from a survey administered to passengers at one of Brazil’s largest airports, in São Paulo, were used for structural equation modeling analyses. The results provided models with a good fit to the data. The findings for nonfrequent passengers showed that the effects of expectations on airport service quality were significant for all the service quality dimensions examined, whereas frequent passengers only revealed a significant relationship between expectation and the “processes” dimension. Theoretical and practical contributions to airport planning and management are discussed in light of the findings.