The Impact of On-board Food Attributes on Passengers’ Satisfaction and Loyalty

Abstract

The on-board service and meal are the most remembered aspects of passengers’ travel experience. Although there is an increase importance of the on-board food service among airline passengers; however, their needs have not been thoroughly researched. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to explore the influence of on-board food attributes on passengers’ satisfaction and their intentions to re-use the same airline company. In this study, a quantitative approach (i.e. airline passenger questionnaire) and qualitative approach (i.e. content analysis of passengers’ rating/comments) were used. More specifically, a form of questionnaire was designed and distributed randomly among 300 airline passengers. Passengers were selected randomly from nine airline companies, namely Egypt Air, El Ethad Airline, Emirates Air, Filipho Airline, Gulf Airline, Lufthansa Airline, Oman Airline, Saudi Arabian Airlines, and Yemen Airline. The questionnaire consisted of 15 food attributes. The quantitative data were analysed using Mann-Whitney test, Kruskal-Wallis test using SPSS, and structural equation modelling using AMOS. Furthermore, the qualitative data (i.e.passengers’ comments and rating) were analyzed using content analysis. The results suggested that nine on-board food attributes (i.e. taste, suitability for all plates, portion size, tray arrangement, cleanliness, texture, temperature, variety, overall quality) made unique and statistically significant contributions to the prediction of passengers’ satisfaction. Inaddition, the results confirmed that passengers’ satisfaction with on-board meals positively affects passengers’ loyalty. The findings of this study provide important practical implications for both scholars and airline managers.