Socio-demographic characteristics and the level of importance that consumers attach to services offered in the passenger airline industry

Abstract

As international competition in the airline industry intensifies, how airline companies structure the design of their service offerings to meet the real needs of their customers becomes crucial to survival. This paper examines the level of importance attributed by consumers to different elementary services customarily provided by companies in the passenger airline industry. It determines if and to what extent, this is influenced by consumer's socio-demographic characteristics of education, occupation, income, age, gender, marital status and nationality. A total of 20 elementary services often offered by companies in the international passenger airline industry were examined. Findings of the empirical research carried out revealed that, while education, and marital status had no apparent influence; age, gender, income, occupation, and nationality tend to exert significant influence on the level of importance that consumers attach to services offered in the passenger airline industry. Managerial implications of this result are discussed, and directions for future research are given.