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Abstract
Pricing and service quality are the key variables that decide the brand equity of each player in the airline
industry. Existing literature suggests that measurement and management of service quality is the key
for survival of airline companies. This research paper examines the service quality delivered by four
major airlines in India on the backdrop of stiff competition in the airline service sector. The process of
traveling on a domestic airline was divided into pre-flight, in- flight and post-flight experiences. A
survey was conducted to find out the perceived service quality of frequent fliers on each of the four
airlines across a series of service performance variables. The airline brands were positioned in a perceptual
space, where the perceived service attributes were also mapped. Clear differences emerged among the
airlines, with two of them perceived as being similar to each other, and the other two differing in many
respects.
Deccan with low-cost, low-fare and no measurement in the airline industry in the
frills along with airlines like Kingfisher, U.S.A. These studies were based on
which offers some frills, and premium economic variables, and pre-deregulation,
airline like Jet Airways. Competition has developed as service quality assessments
brought in some price advantages to from the perspective of the airline
travelers and has converted many railway consumer. Kearney (1986) was the first one
passengers to airline travelers. This article to conduct service quality assessments
examines customer satisfaction among from the perspective of the airline
travelers of four major domestic airlines consumer in his doctoral dissertation work,
in India. Because of proliferated number which examined service quality from the
of players in the airline industry, airlines perspective of industry-based economic
may enjoy new business opportunities and marketing measures.
along with high competitive threats. The
Many researchers and marketers have
objective of this study is to understand the
focused their attention on customer
customer satisfaction levels of the four evaluations of services in an effort to find
major airlines viz. Jet Airways, Indian ways to improve service quality (Fisk,
Airlines, Air Deccan and Kingfisher. Brown, & Bitner, 1993). Extensive research
A comparison of customer satisfaction has been conducted in the field of service
based on service quality was done among quality. Parasuraman et al. (Parasuraman,
the four major airlines based on responses Berry, & Zeithaml, 1991; Parasuraman,
from frequent fliers across fourteen Zeithaml, & Berry, 1985, 1988) developed
variables on a five point Likert scale. A a service quality measure, called
flying experience was divided into three SERVQUAL, which states that the
stages- namely, pre-flight, in-flight and customer’s assessment of overall service
post-flight experience. A questionnaire quality is determined by the degree and
was designed in such a way that the same direction of the gap between their
sets of variables were measured among expectations and perceptions of actual
the customers of the four airlines under performance levels. They also identified
study. Fliers who had flown any of the five essentials for service quality: tangibles,
four airlines could answer the questions reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and
pertaining to those airlines. The objective empathy. They proposed that perceived
of this study was to understand the service quality could be estimated by
satisfaction levels of the airline customers. calculating the difference between
The study measured the expected level of expectations and perceptions of actual
service quality using a Likert type scale. service performance. The SERVQUAL
scale has been criticized for its validity and
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
reliability. Buttle (1996) pointed out that
In the 1970’s the Civil Aeronautics Board including all 44 items (22 items of service
(Douglas & Miller, 1974; Jordan, 1970) expectations and a duplicate of 22 items of
developed the initial tools of service quality service performance) in one study often
Venkatesh et al, Service Quality ... 115
makes the survey task too difficult for customers consider service reliability, in-
respondents. Cronin and Taylor flight comfort, and connections as the key
(1992,1994) have empirically proved that factors determining satisfaction with
the measures of service performance or airline service, whereas Korean
SERVPERF, is more effective than passengers generally regard reliability,
SERVQUAL, which includes expectations assurance, and risk factors as predictors
as well as performance. SERVPERF is now of satisfaction. This study conducted by
widely used in measuring customer Cunningham, Young, and Lee (2002) is
evaluations of service quality interesting as it has measured service
(Cunningham and Young, 2004). quality based on SERVPERF which is a
set of multi-dimensional measures of
Cunningham and Young (2004) used
customer evaluations of service quality
SERVPERF in measuring the airline
(Cunningham, Young, and Lee 2002).
service quality. Their literature review
suggests that initial publications on airline Wen Li and Chen (1998) studied the
service quality appeared in 1988 quality evaluation of domestic airline
(Gourdin, 1988). Fick & Ritchie and industry using modified Taguchi loss
Gourdin & Kloppenborg were the first to function with different weights and target
apply the service quality gap model to the values. By using Taguchi loss function one
airline industry in 1991. Fick and Ritchie can quantify quality and thus compare
(1991) used the SERVQUAL scale to service quality objectively. According to
measure perceived service quality within Wen Li and Chen (1998), the process of
several service industries including the traveling a domestic airline can be
airline industry. They found the mean described as follows:
scores of consumer expectation and Ticket— Check –in—boarding—
perception of service performance departure—flying—arrival—baggage
measures and failed to determine the claim
relative impact of various SERVQUAL
items on overall service quality and Three quality categories with ten
satisfaction (Cunningham etal 2004). identified variables are proposed by Wen
Li and Chen (1998) and service quality of
Measurement and management of service domestic airline is quantified accordingly.
quality is the fundamental issue for the Taguchi loss function requires industry
survival and growth of airline companies measures to measure airline service
(Cunningham, Young, and Lee 2002). quality.
Cunningham, Young, and Lee (2002)
conducted studies on perceptions of As stated earlier, airline traffic in India has
airline service quality of U.S. and Korean picked up only recently. However,
customers based on SERVPERF and competition has brought to surface,
industry-based measures, as well as their industry issues such as insufficient
perceptions of risks involved in the airline number of pilots, airport facilities and
choice. The results suggested that U.S. trained personnel. When the objective of
116 Vilakshan, XIMB Journal of Management
the response to the loyalty programs full fare to low priced airlines.
provided by the airlines to frequent fliers Convenience sampling was done. Targeted
which was measured through, “ the sample size was 30 per airline, and
airline offers real benefits to frequent achieved sizes were as follows.
fliers” on the five point Likert – type scale.
5. DATA ANALYSIS & RESULTS
The authors discussed the air travel
process with at least five frequent fliers The statistical analyses used were one way
of domestic airlines in India to understand ANOVA, Discriminant Analysis, Cluster
the process in the Indian condition apart analysis and Cross Tabulation. Analysis
from the fact that both the authors are of research data used the level of
themselves frequent fliers of domestic significance, a = 0.05
airlines. For further reference, 5.1 Mean Difference Results
questionnaire is attached as Appendix 1.
Table 2 provides a summary of the mean
4.2 Sample Characteristics
scores for the variables in the study.
Some of the SERVPERF variables
The objective of this study was to examine
developed by Cronin and Taylor (1992)
customer perception of service quality.
were adapted along with the process
One way-ANOVA was performed and
variables (Wen Li and Chen 1998) to the
the result showed a significant difference
Indian market conditions based on the fact
among the four airlines, except in two
that air traffic in India has gone up only in
variables viz. baggage loss and online
the last three years and still a very small
booking. Travelers agreed that all the
percentage of the population travel by air.
airlines manage baggage well and all of
“Population” consisted of the customers of
four domestic airline companies in India them provided online booking.
viz. Jet Airways, Indian Airlines, Air 5.2 Pre-Flight Service Quality
Deccan and Kingfisher. These airlines were
Pre-flight service was examined by rating
selected, as they are representative of the
the variables listed below.
major segments in the airline industry from
Table 1 – Airline wise Composition of 1. Flights are on time
Sample 2. Good ground service,
No Company Obtained number 3. The airline keeps its travelers
of samples informed in the case of a delay
1 Jet Airways 39 through SMS or a call
2. Indian Airlines 40 4. The airlines makes regular
3. Air Deccan 29 announcement in case of a delay to
4. Kingfisher 26 keep the travelers informed of the
“Always” (as a response) was a given a score of status quo
(=1) and “Never” (as a response) was a given a 5. The airline provides refreshments
score of (=5) and any other response was between
these. whenever there is a delay,
118 Vilakshan, XIMB Journal of Management
6. Provide accommodation if there is a delay. Except for Air Deccan, the other
long delay. three airlines were rated as providing
good ground service. In the case of a delay
All the six pre-flight SERVPERF variables
Jet Airways and Kingfisher usually
were found to be significant as shown by
provided the travelers with refreshments
the one way ANOVA that is displayed as
whereas Air Deccan never provided such
Table 2. The four airlines provided
services. Except Air Deccan, all the other
significantly different service quality in
airlines usually provided accommodation
the pre flight service.
in case of delay. The study conducted by
Jet Airways travelers found its flights to Gourdin and Kloppenborg (1991)
be on time usually against Air Deccan identified on-board comfort, being kept
travelers who rated its flights to be almost informed regarding delays and being
never on time. Jet Airways, Kingfisher, cared for when travel was disrupted as
and Air Deccan usually informed the being important to passengers.
customers about delay in advance
5.3 In-flight Services
through SMS or telephone call. Indian
Airlines was rated average on this service Jet Airways, Indian Airlines and Kingfisher
quality variable. All the four airlines were were rated as providing very good in-flight
found to be above average in announcing service whereas Air Deccan was rated to
Venkatesh et al, Service Quality ... 119
pricing. Together, these may be named as perceptual map is drawn using functions
basic service elements, on which airlines 1 and 2, the relative positions of the four
seem to differ significantly. The only brands of airlines which is derived from
exception seems to be delay information, Table 5.
loading highly on function two, and delay The perceptual map shows that Jet Airways
announcement and good ground service, and Kingfisher are positioned together. Air
which are loading highly on function Deccan and Indian Airlines are positioned
three. But these are not significant far away from each other. A, B, C and D in
statistically and therefore should be the perceptual map represents the airlines
treated with caution. as per Table 6 given below. The horizontal
Positioning of the four airline brands axis represents Function 1 and the vertical
through Discriminant Analysis: A axis, Function 2.
Table 5: Functions at Group Centroids The fourteen attribute vectors are mapped
airline name Function across the perceptual space. Vectors 1 to
3
14
2
1
8
4
B 1
13
12
0 C
D
-4 -3 -2 -1 0 7 1 2 3 4 5
A
-1 9 6
10
-2
3 11
-3 ▼ Series 1
Venkatesh et al, Service Quality ... 121
Based on the above findings, Jet Airways airline provides good service quality.
and Kingfisher can be considered as Indian Airlines was rated as providing
brands which have similar attributes, as good in-flight food, waiting time for
most of their customers are found to be baggage, good ground service,
members of cluster two. accommodation on delay and a few other
elements such as price, online booking and
6. CONCLUSION
benefits for frequent fliers. Indian Airlines
This study has several managerial was rated as average or below average on
implications, as it demonstrates that the the rest of the service variables. Baggage
adapted version of SERVPERF scale is loss has been reported as a problem faced
applicable in the Indian conditions. When by some of the Indian Airlines customers.
considered in totality the results of this Air Deccan has been rated by its customers
study suggest that implementation of basic as providing good service quality in
service quality is essential to combat the informing customer about delay. Air
growing competition. Differentiation can Deccan customers are happy with its
occur only by adding new service elements provision for online booking, discounted
along with providing better quality in fare and real benefits for frequent fliers.
delivering the current service. Safety has The study revealed that customers were
been considered as a major element in not happy with all the other service
choosing an airline brand in the west, post variables which suggest that the overall
9/11. Crisis management has also taken service quality of Air Deccan is not
different dimensions in the U.S in the considered good. Some of the Air Deccan
airline industry post 9/11. This trend customers report baggage loss as a
suggests that many different social events problem. Air Deccan calls itself a no-frill
and variables also have an impact on how service provider as it is a low cost airline.
customers look at each brand. This study The travelers of Air Deccan seem to rate it
shows that customers of Jet Airways rate to be a bad service provider even though
it as an airline that provides very good they were flying on low fares. When Air
service quality across the fourteen service Deccan has large volume loads and
variables. Kingfisher ranks second and its generates revenue, it should rethink its
customers have reported that usually the value proposition in terms of providing
Venkatesh et al, Service Quality ... 123
basic service quality to stay in the market. Cronin, J. J., Jr., and Taylor, S. A. (1992),
In the U.S.A, Southwest and Jet Blue have “Measuring Service Quality: A
a strong brand presence and offer well Reexamination and Extension,” Journal of
defined service rather than just low prices Marketing, 56 (July), 55–68.
(Economist, 2004). Most of the low cost Cronin, J.J.,Jr. and Taylor, S.A. (1994),
airlines in Europe had to shut shop as they “SERVPERF versus SERVQUAL: Reconciling
were not providing even the basic service Performance-Based and Perceptions-Minus-
quality. A study conducted by Natalisa & Expectations Measurement of Service
Subroto (2003) on the customer satisfaction Quality, Journal of Marketing, 58(January),
of domestic airlines in Indonesia proved 125-131
that customer’s perceptions of service Douglas, G.W.,& Miller, J. C., III. (1974). Economic
quality influence the level of customer regulation of domestic air transport: Theory and
satisfaction by using regression analysis. policy . Washington, DC: Brookings
It can also be a case of concern to Indian Institution.
Airlines and Air Deccan as our study has
Economist (2004). Turbulent Skies, Vol. 372, Issue
found that the overall service quality
8383
provided by these airlines are considered
below satisfactory by its customers. Fick, G. R., & Ritchie, J. R. B. (1991). “Measuring
service quality in the travel and tourism
7. LIMITATIONS industry,” Journal of Travel Research, 30 (Fall),
The findings of this study are limited to 2-9.
the airline industry in India. This study Fisk, R. P., Brown, S. W., and Bitner, M. J. (1993),
has not considered industry measures to “Tracking the Evolution of the Services
measure service quality. We have Marketing Literature,” Journal of Retailing, 69,
measured only the customer perception 1 (Spring), 61–103
of service quality.
Gourdin, K. N., & Kloppenborg, T. J. (1991).
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APPENDIX 1
Service Quality of Domestic Airlines in India: An Empirical Study
Dr. Rajendra Nargundkar and Ms. Bhagyalakshmi Venkatesh of Dept. Of Management
Studies, PESIT Bangalore are conducting a study on the service quality of four Indian
domestic airline services. We request you to spare a few minutes to fill up the questions
below. Thank You.
Please circle the relevant response on the following questions for all airlines you have traveled.
(1=Always, 5=Never, and other responses are between these.)
1. The flights are on-time
a. Jet Airways Always 1 2 3 4 5 Never
b. Indian Airlines Always 1 2 3 4 5 Never
c. Air Deccan Always 1 2 3 4 5 Never
d. King Fisher Always 1 2 3 4 5 Never
2. The airline informs you in advance if there is delay (through sms or call)
a. Jet Airways Always 1 2 3 4 5 Never
b. Indian Airlines Always 1 2 3 4 5 Never
c. Air Deccan Always 1 2 3 4 5 Never
d. King Fisher Always 1 2 3 4 5 Never
3. If the flight is delayed, regular announcements are made
a. Jet Airways Always 1 2 3 4 5 Never
b. Indian Airlines Always 1 2 3 4 5 Never
c. Air Deccan Always 1 2 3 4 5 Never
d. King Fisher Always 1 2 3 4 5 Never
4. In-flight service is good
a. Jet Airways Always 1 2 3 4 5 Never
b. Indian Airlines Always 1 2 3 4 5 Never
c. Air Deccan Always 1 2 3 4 5 Never
d. King Fisher Always 1 2 3 4 5 Never
5. The in-flight food is good
a. Jet Airways Always 1 2 3 4 5 Never
b. Indian Airlines Always 1 2 3 4 5 Never
c. Air Deccan Always 1 2 3 4 5 Never
d. King Fisher Always 1 2 3 4 5 Never
6. The waiting time for baggage arrival is reasonable
a. Jet Airways Always 1 2 3 4 5 Never
b. Indian Airlines Always 1 2 3 4 5 Never
c. Air Deccan Always 1 2 3 4 5 Never
d. King Fisher Always 1 2 3 4 5 Never
126 Vilakshan, XIMB Journal of Management