Abstract
Customer Satisfaction is one of the most important processes in airline industry and is recognized as key to the success of business competition which is the individual’s perception of the performance of the service in relation to expectations. Customers have drastically different expectations and, the objective of airline marketing efforts in today’s fast moving world is to maximize customer satisfaction. For this reason, airline marketers offer more products and services than ever before. In the airline industry understanding what passengers need and expect is essential to providing desired service quality (Gilbert & Wong, 2003) and consequently to understand the airline’s performance levels (Chen & Chang, 2005). An in-depth review of related literature has revealed that a majority of travel researchers tend to define quality as meeting passengers’ needs and expectations. Since customer expectations of service quality may vary at different stages in the service process, it has been strongly argued that in practice, most airlines measure passenger perceptions of their service offerings in order to evaluate and understand the airline's performance level without clear knowledge of passengers' expectations for service in each stage. Consequently, lack of understanding or misunderstanding such expectations could pose serious problems in resource allocation decisions. However, most airlines do not recognize the importance of this approach. Passengers’ expectations are among the factors influencing the service decisions of airlines. The primary objectives of this study are to determine customer expectations and satisfaction of private airline company service in Turkey. There is very limited literature on importance and satisfaction analysis private airline services. Based on a survey of 207 domestic passengers of four Turkish private airlines, this paper reveals passengers demographic profiles, behavioral characteristics, understanding of airline expectations and satisfaction levels with measured involve on twelve factors; convenience of schedules, on time performance, safety, types of airlines, price, comfort, food and drinks, personnel behavior, airline images, baggage services, flight network, cabin services.
Highlights
As in other sectors, the problem in the airline sector is whether management can correctly perceive what customers want and expect
As can be seen table 3, when we examine the airline company choices made by the passengers involved in the study for domestic lines, the passengers seem to prefer Atlas Jet Airlines by 23,7%, Pegasus Airlines by 12,1%, Sun Express Airlines by 9,1% and Onur Airlines by 7,3%
In order for the airline companies operating in domestic lines to be able to determine the strategies suitable for their own operational structures, they should accurately identify expectations of the passengers they offer service to
Summary
The problem in the airline sector is whether management can correctly perceive what customers want and expect. Expectations serve as a major determinant of a consumer's service quality evaluations and satisfaction (O’Connor et al, 2000). Expectations serve as standards or reference points for customers. Passengers compare what they perceive they get in a service encounter with their expectations of that encounter. At this point, the “voice of the customer” should be taken into the design process using advanced techniques, such as experimental design, quality function deployment, and value engineering. In addition increasing customer satisfaction can lead to improved profits, lower marketing expenditures, and positive word-of-mouth communication (Reichheld, 1990). It can be a significant determinant of passengers’ buying behaviors and crucial to the long-term survival of some airlines. Rapid urbanization, a healthy foreign tourism industry and an active regional commercial base, Turkey has witnessed a need to further develop civil aviation and airport infrastructure in the current decade Turkey, is larger than any country in Western Europe, Given its large size and growing population base, the residents of Turkey have come to rely on domestic and international air service
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