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Service Quality Perceptions of Domestic
                         Airline Consumers in India:
                                 An Empirical Study*
                                                Bhagyalakshmi Venkatesh 1 & R. Nargundkar2


                                                     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.


1.    INTRODUCTION                                           expected to grow by 20 percent annually
                                                             over the next five years.
India at present has twelve competing
airlines in the domestic market as against                   Only a small percentage of India’s
a single government owned airline in                         population travels by air partly due to
1991. According to McKinsey Quarterly                        the high costs of domestic flying.
(2005), the Indian aircraft market is the                    According to the Center for Asia Pacific
world’s second largest commercial                            Aviation (CAPA) consultancy, new
aircraft market. On-time performance and                     players will help domestic passenger
service levels have risen dramatically and                   numbers. The players in the current
fares have dropped. Passenger traffic is                     airline market include airlines like Air


*     Received April 12, 2006
1.    Research Associate, Dept. of Management Studies, PESIT, 100 Ft Ring Road, Bangalore,
      e-mail: bhagi3@gmail.com
2.    Director-MBA Program, Dept. of Management Studies, PESIT, 100 Ft Ring Road,Bangalore,
      e-mail: rnargundkar@yahoo.com
114   Vilakshan, XIMB Journal of Management




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




low-cost carriers is to convert railway        Our study attempts to examine the
passengers to airline travelers at a very      satisfaction level of service quality of
low-fare, the focus of the service provider    domestic airline travelers in India across
may not be on the service quality but in       fourteen airline travel process variables
providing the basic service product. In        suggested by Wen Li and Chen (1998)
comparison, America’s budget airlines          which are modified to suit the Indian
have started to increase service quality in    standards. Some of these variables can
spite of the low fare offers. Southwest and    also be included as the reliability and
Jet Blue have strong brand presence and        responsiveness variables of SERVPERF.
offer well defined service rather than just    The flying experience has been divided
low prices (Economist, 2004). On the other     into preflight, on flight and post flight
hand, airline service quality across the       experiences.
world have reached new heights where
                                               3.   RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
in international airlines such as Virgin
Atlantic Airways have introduced double        1.   To study the customer perceptions of
suites, in-flight beauty therapy treatments         service quality of each of the four
and massages, free limousines to and from           airlines under study
the airport and many more.
                                               2.   To compare the service quality of the
As a result of low fares, there is an               airlines under study
expected increase in the volume of
domestic airline travelers in India which      4.   RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
has accelerated competition in the air         4.1 Questionnaire Design
travel market. While certain segments in
                                               The respondents were asked to evaluate
choosing an airline, consider price
                                               the service quality of the service provided
advantages, service quality cannot be
absent. According to Zeithaml and Bitner       by the airline, which they have traveled.
(1996b), the concept of satisfaction is        Perceived service quality of each variable
influenced by five variables viz. 1) service   was measured through questions
quality 2) product quality 3) price 4)         designed on a 5-point Likert-type scale
situation and 5) personality.                  ranging from always to never. For
                                               example, the on-time services of the
Natalisa and Subroto ( 2003) combine the       airline was measured through the
variables of product quality and service       question, “The flights are on time” with
quality into variable of service quality and   always as a the best positive response and
studied the customers’ perception of           never as the worst negative response, any
service quality in the domestic airline        other response can be recorded between
services of Indonesia.                         “always” and “never” on the scale.
In short, service quality of airlines have     Similarly, other good ground service – in-
been studied based on industry measures,       flight service and post-flight service were
SERVQUAL, SERVPERF, Taguchi loss               measured through the same scale. The
function and Zeithaml and Bitner Model.        questionnaire also had a question to check
Venkatesh et al, Service Quality ...   117




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




Table 2 – Service Quality Scores for Various Airlines
 Variables                          Indian       Air       Kingfisher         One-Way
                          Jet Air   Airlines   Deccan                          ANOV
                          Mean       Mean       Mean     Mean      df       F      Signi
                                                                          Value   ficance
 On-time                   1.9231   3.0750      3.96     2.4583    3      21.941     .000
 Delay information         1.7895   3.1282     2.8929    2.3158    3       7.372     .000
 Announce delay            1.4595   2.0278     2.9231    1.8571    3       9.593     .000
 Good in-flight service    1.5641   2.8158     3.7692    1.5833    3      37.506     .000
 Good in-flight food       1.7632   2.7895      3.8261   2.0435    3      20.961     .000
 Waiting time for          2.2895   2.6053     3.2800    2.4167    3       4.760     .004
 baggage
 Baggage loss              4.1212   3.6857     3.8696    4.4000    3       1.347     .263
 Compensate baggage-       2.6957   3.2083     3.8667    2.5000    3       3.028     .035
 Loss
 Good ground service       1.7059   2.6000     3.0833    1.5417    3      12.147     .000
 Refreshments on delay     1.9189   3.0000     4.1818    1.8095    3      19.609     .000
 Accommodation on-         2.2258   2.7931     4.1053    2.7647    3       7.231    . 000
 Delay                     1.2571   1.7241     1.3333    1.2381    3       1.805     .151
 Discounted fare           1.4000   2.0294     1.3462    1.5000    3       3.184    . 023
 Real benefits for-        1.4211   2.5455     2.5455    2.1111    3       5.489     .002
 Frequent fliers

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




be providing almost no service quality on       Table 3: Wilks’ Lambda
in-flight services. Jet Airways was found        Test of            Wilks’    Chi-      df    Sig.
to be providing good in-flight food along        Fun-              Lambda    square
with Kingfisher. Indian airlines was rated       ction(s)
as average in providing good in-flight           1 through 3         .238    60.340     42    .033
food. Air Deccan did not offer in-flight food
at all. The study conducted by Gourdin           2 through 3         .625    19.774     26    .802
and Kloppenborg (1991) did not find              3                   .933    2.897      12    .996
courteous cabin attendants and beverage
service on short flights as important to        Table 4: Standardized Canonical
passengers.                                     Discriminant Function Coefficients
5.4 Post Flight Services                                                              Function

Air Deccan travelers rated longest waiting                                      1       2        3
time for baggage arrival against other           on time                       .354    .242   .733
airlines. Baggage loss was found to be           delay information            -.283 .979 -.150
almost never a problem with Jet Airways          good inflight service         .742 .211 -.407
and Kingfisher where as Indian Airlines
                                                 good inflight food           -.326 .072 -.086
and Air Deccan travelers had to face
                                                 waiting time                  .582 -.199 -.253
baggage loss, sometimes. On the
                                                 for baggage
occurrence of baggage loss Air Deccan
sometimes never compensated for the              baggage loss                  .073 -.091 .416
baggage loss.                                    compensate                   -.617 .233 -.535
                                                 baggage loss
There was no significant difference among
                                                 good ground service           .024 -.135 -.643
the airlines on services such as online
                                                 refreshments on delay         .521 -.273 .072
booking which just meant such a service
was provided by all the airlines. All the        accomodation on delay         .529 -.466 .304
airlines were found to be providing              online booking               -.118 -.069 -.352
discounted fares and real benefits for           discounted fare              -.526 .130 .502
frequent fliers.                                 real benefits for            -.060 .440      .102

5.5 Discriminant Analysis                        frequent fliers
                                                that function 1 consists of good in-flight
Discriminant analysis revealed significant
                                                service, waiting time for baggage,
differences among the airlines. Three
                                                compensation for baggage loss,
functions were produced, of which the
                                                refreshments on delay, accommodation
first was statistically significant. (Refer
                                                on delay and discounted fare. Hence, we
Table 3). The second and third functions
                                                could conclude that the difference
were not significant.
                                                between airlines is a multi-dimensional
From the standardized discriminant              construct consisting of in-flight service,
function coefficients (Table 4) , it appears    delay handling, baggage handling and
120   Vilakshan, XIMB Journal of Management




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

                              1             2                3                        Table 6: Brands of Airlines from the
                                                                                      Group Centroids
  Jet Airways            -1.022        -.733             -.158
                                                                                              Sl No                        Airline Name
  Indian Airlines         -.361         .886             -.074
  Air Deccan              2.300        -.264             -.059                                A                            Jet airways
  Kingfisher              -.350        -.189              .643                                B                            Indian airlines
Unstandardized canonical discriminant                                                         C                            Air Deccan
   functions evaluated at group means                                                         D                            Kingfisher

        Graph 1 : Perceptual Map of four domestic airlines in India based on
        Perceived Service Quality: Discriminant Function 1 (horizontal axis)
                            vs Function 2(vertical axis)
                                                              6
                                             2

                                                              5

                                                              4

                                                              3
                                                             14


                                                              2
                                                                                          1
                          8
                                                                                                                   4
                                                         B    1
                                  1
                                  3

                                        5

                                                     1
                                                     2
                                                              0                                   C
                                                                  D
                    -4        -3       -2        -1                   0           7   1   2                3       4   5
                                                 A
                                                             -1           9                                    6


                                                                                                      10


                                                             -2
                                                                              3                       11


                                                             -3                                                             M   Series 1
Venkatesh et al, Service Quality ...    121




14 can be identified from Table 7 given            5.6 Cluster Analysis
below.                                             Cluster analysis was performed to find
Table 7: Attribute Vectors based on                out the similarity between brands and to
Standardized Canonical Discriminant                reiterate the positioning exercise done by
Function Coefficients                              Discriminant analysis. An ANOVA
                                                   conducted for cluster analysis showed
 1        On time                                  that all the service attributes to be
 2        Delay information                        significantly different across the different
 3        Announce delay                           clusters (Refer Table 8).
 4        Good in-flight service
 5        Good in-flight food                      Four major clusters were identified. Cross
 6        Waiting time for baggage                 tabulation was conducted to find the
 7        Baggage loss                             relationship between the brands and the
 8        Compensate baggage loss                  four different clusters. Table 9 shows that
                                                   most of the Jet Airways and Kingfisher
 9        Good ground service
                                                   customers belong to cluster 2. Indian
 10       Refreshments on delay
                                                   Airlines and Air Deccan customers
 11       Accommodation on delay
                                                   dominate cluster 3. Cluster 4 has a large
 12       Online booking
                                                   representation of customers of Indian
 13       Discounted fare
                                                   Airlines where as cluster 1 does not seem
 14       Real benefits for frequent fliers
                                                   to be very significant.
Table 8: ANOVA
                                             Cluster          Error
                                        Mean       df     Mean      df           F        Signi
                                       Square             Square
 on time                                30.783     3        .940      126      32.745     .000
 delay information                      35.893     3       1.209      120      29.680     .000
 announce delay                         29.422     3        .687      116      42.822     .000
 good inflight service                  39.452     3        .715      123      55.167     .000
 good inflight food                     38.787     3        .695      118      55.770     .000
 waiting time for baggage               16.200     3        .853      121      18.995     .000
 baggage loss                           37.954     3        .861      107      44.093     .000
 compensate baggage loss                18.986     3       1.214       68      15.641     .000
 good ground service                    26.857     3        .846      113      31.728     .000
 refreshments on delay                  39.417     3       1.278      109      30.845     .000
 accomodation on delay                  34.155     3       1.291       92      26.456     .000
 online booking                          6.105     3        .677      102       9.020     .000
 discounted fare                         5.528     3        .900      113       6.140     .001
 real benefits for frequent fliers      20.021     3       1.430      107      13.999     .000
122     Vilakshan, XIMB Journal of Management




Table 9: Airline Name and Cluster Number of Case Cross tabulation
                                                 Cluster Number of Case                 Total
                                                1          2         3        4
     airline name     Jet Airways               0          27        5        7         39
                      Indian Airlines           1          7         17       15        40
                      Air Deccan                6          0         18       5         29
                      Kingfisher                2          15        4        5         26
                      Total                     9          49        44       32        134

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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Buttle, F(1996). SERVQUAL: Review, Critique,          improvement. Transportation Journal, 31(1),
   Research Agenda , European Journal of              22-30.
   Marketing, 30,1, 8-32
                                                    Jordan,W. A. (1970). Airline regulation in America:
Cunningham, L. F., Young C. E., & Lee, M (2004).        Effects and imperfections. Baltimore: Johns
  Perceptions of airline service quality Pre and        Hopkins University Press.
  Post 9/11. Public works Management & Policy,
                                                    Kearney, T. J. (1986). Quality of service under airline
  9(1), 10-25
                                                       deregulation. Doctoral dissertation, Indiana
Cunningham, L. F., Young C. E., & Lee, M. (2002).      University at Bloomington.
  Cross-cultural perspectives of service quality
  and risk in air transportation. Journal of Air    Nargundkar, R (2003), Marketing Research, 2nd
  Transportation, 7(1), 3-26.                          Edition, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi
124   Vilakshan, XIMB Journal of Management




Natalisa Diah and Subroto Budiarto(2003),              and its implications for future research.
  “Effects of Management Commitment on                 Journal of Marketing, 49, 41-50.
  Service Quality to Increase Customer
                                                    Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L.
  Satisfaction of Domestic Airlines in
                                                       (1988). SERVPERF: A multiple-item scale for
  Indonesia” , Singapore Management Review,
                                                       measuring consumer perceptions of service
  Volume 25 (1)
                                                       quality. Journal of Retailing, 64, 28-31.
Pandit, Ranjit V (2005). Why Believe in India.
                                                    Wen Li, Ching and Chen K. Alice(1998).
   McKinsey Quarterly, Special Edition, 133-170
                                                      Quality Evaluation of Domestic Airline
Parasuraman, A., Berry, L. L., & Zeithaml, V. A.      Industry Using Modified Taguchi Loss
   (1991). Refinement and reassessment of the         Function with Different Weights and Target
   SERVPERF Scale. Journal of Retailing, 67, 420-     Values. Total Quality Management, 9(7),
   150.                                               645-653
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A.,& Berry, L. L.     Zeithaml and Bitner (1996), Services Marketing,
   (1985).A conceptual model of service quality        Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi
Venkatesh et al, Service Quality ...   125




                                     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




 7. Baggage loss is a problem with
     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
 8. The airline compensates for lost baggage if such a situation arises,
     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
 9. The airline provides good check-in services
     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
 10. The airline provides refreshments whenever there is a delay
     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
 11. The airline provides accommodation if there is a very long delay
     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
 12. The airline provides online booking services
     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
 13. The airline offers discounted fare schemes
     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
 14. The airline offers real benefits to frequent fliers
     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

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Airlines

  • 1. Service Quality Perceptions of Domestic Airline Consumers in India: An Empirical Study* Bhagyalakshmi Venkatesh 1 & R. Nargundkar2 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. 1. INTRODUCTION expected to grow by 20 percent annually over the next five years. India at present has twelve competing airlines in the domestic market as against Only a small percentage of India’s a single government owned airline in population travels by air partly due to 1991. According to McKinsey Quarterly the high costs of domestic flying. (2005), the Indian aircraft market is the According to the Center for Asia Pacific world’s second largest commercial Aviation (CAPA) consultancy, new aircraft market. On-time performance and players will help domestic passenger service levels have risen dramatically and numbers. The players in the current fares have dropped. Passenger traffic is airline market include airlines like Air * Received April 12, 2006 1. Research Associate, Dept. of Management Studies, PESIT, 100 Ft Ring Road, Bangalore, e-mail: bhagi3@gmail.com 2. Director-MBA Program, Dept. of Management Studies, PESIT, 100 Ft Ring Road,Bangalore, e-mail: rnargundkar@yahoo.com
  • 2. 114 Vilakshan, XIMB Journal of Management 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
  • 3. 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
  • 4. 116 Vilakshan, XIMB Journal of Management low-cost carriers is to convert railway Our study attempts to examine the passengers to airline travelers at a very satisfaction level of service quality of low-fare, the focus of the service provider domestic airline travelers in India across may not be on the service quality but in fourteen airline travel process variables providing the basic service product. In suggested by Wen Li and Chen (1998) comparison, America’s budget airlines which are modified to suit the Indian have started to increase service quality in standards. Some of these variables can spite of the low fare offers. Southwest and also be included as the reliability and Jet Blue have strong brand presence and responsiveness variables of SERVPERF. offer well defined service rather than just The flying experience has been divided low prices (Economist, 2004). On the other into preflight, on flight and post flight hand, airline service quality across the experiences. world have reached new heights where 3. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES in international airlines such as Virgin Atlantic Airways have introduced double 1. To study the customer perceptions of suites, in-flight beauty therapy treatments service quality of each of the four and massages, free limousines to and from airlines under study the airport and many more. 2. To compare the service quality of the As a result of low fares, there is an airlines under study expected increase in the volume of domestic airline travelers in India which 4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY has accelerated competition in the air 4.1 Questionnaire Design travel market. While certain segments in The respondents were asked to evaluate choosing an airline, consider price the service quality of the service provided advantages, service quality cannot be absent. According to Zeithaml and Bitner by the airline, which they have traveled. (1996b), the concept of satisfaction is Perceived service quality of each variable influenced by five variables viz. 1) service was measured through questions quality 2) product quality 3) price 4) designed on a 5-point Likert-type scale situation and 5) personality. ranging from always to never. For example, the on-time services of the Natalisa and Subroto ( 2003) combine the airline was measured through the variables of product quality and service question, “The flights are on time” with quality into variable of service quality and always as a the best positive response and studied the customers’ perception of never as the worst negative response, any service quality in the domestic airline other response can be recorded between services of Indonesia. “always” and “never” on the scale. In short, service quality of airlines have Similarly, other good ground service – in- been studied based on industry measures, flight service and post-flight service were SERVQUAL, SERVPERF, Taguchi loss measured through the same scale. The function and Zeithaml and Bitner Model. questionnaire also had a question to check
  • 5. Venkatesh et al, Service Quality ... 117 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,
  • 6. 118 Vilakshan, XIMB Journal of Management Table 2 – Service Quality Scores for Various Airlines Variables Indian Air Kingfisher One-Way Jet Air Airlines Deccan ANOV Mean Mean Mean Mean df F Signi Value ficance On-time 1.9231 3.0750 3.96 2.4583 3 21.941 .000 Delay information 1.7895 3.1282 2.8929 2.3158 3 7.372 .000 Announce delay 1.4595 2.0278 2.9231 1.8571 3 9.593 .000 Good in-flight service 1.5641 2.8158 3.7692 1.5833 3 37.506 .000 Good in-flight food 1.7632 2.7895 3.8261 2.0435 3 20.961 .000 Waiting time for 2.2895 2.6053 3.2800 2.4167 3 4.760 .004 baggage Baggage loss 4.1212 3.6857 3.8696 4.4000 3 1.347 .263 Compensate baggage- 2.6957 3.2083 3.8667 2.5000 3 3.028 .035 Loss Good ground service 1.7059 2.6000 3.0833 1.5417 3 12.147 .000 Refreshments on delay 1.9189 3.0000 4.1818 1.8095 3 19.609 .000 Accommodation on- 2.2258 2.7931 4.1053 2.7647 3 7.231 . 000 Delay 1.2571 1.7241 1.3333 1.2381 3 1.805 .151 Discounted fare 1.4000 2.0294 1.3462 1.5000 3 3.184 . 023 Real benefits for- 1.4211 2.5455 2.5455 2.1111 3 5.489 .002 Frequent fliers 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
  • 7. Venkatesh et al, Service Quality ... 119 be providing almost no service quality on Table 3: Wilks’ Lambda in-flight services. Jet Airways was found Test of Wilks’ Chi- df Sig. to be providing good in-flight food along Fun- Lambda square with Kingfisher. Indian airlines was rated ction(s) as average in providing good in-flight 1 through 3 .238 60.340 42 .033 food. Air Deccan did not offer in-flight food at all. The study conducted by Gourdin 2 through 3 .625 19.774 26 .802 and Kloppenborg (1991) did not find 3 .933 2.897 12 .996 courteous cabin attendants and beverage service on short flights as important to Table 4: Standardized Canonical passengers. Discriminant Function Coefficients 5.4 Post Flight Services Function Air Deccan travelers rated longest waiting 1 2 3 time for baggage arrival against other on time .354 .242 .733 airlines. Baggage loss was found to be delay information -.283 .979 -.150 almost never a problem with Jet Airways good inflight service .742 .211 -.407 and Kingfisher where as Indian Airlines good inflight food -.326 .072 -.086 and Air Deccan travelers had to face waiting time .582 -.199 -.253 baggage loss, sometimes. On the for baggage occurrence of baggage loss Air Deccan sometimes never compensated for the baggage loss .073 -.091 .416 baggage loss. compensate -.617 .233 -.535 baggage loss There was no significant difference among good ground service .024 -.135 -.643 the airlines on services such as online refreshments on delay .521 -.273 .072 booking which just meant such a service was provided by all the airlines. All the accomodation on delay .529 -.466 .304 airlines were found to be providing online booking -.118 -.069 -.352 discounted fares and real benefits for discounted fare -.526 .130 .502 frequent fliers. real benefits for -.060 .440 .102 5.5 Discriminant Analysis frequent fliers that function 1 consists of good in-flight Discriminant analysis revealed significant service, waiting time for baggage, differences among the airlines. Three compensation for baggage loss, functions were produced, of which the refreshments on delay, accommodation first was statistically significant. (Refer on delay and discounted fare. Hence, we Table 3). The second and third functions could conclude that the difference were not significant. between airlines is a multi-dimensional From the standardized discriminant construct consisting of in-flight service, function coefficients (Table 4) , it appears delay handling, baggage handling and
  • 8. 120 Vilakshan, XIMB Journal of Management 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 1 2 3 Table 6: Brands of Airlines from the Group Centroids Jet Airways -1.022 -.733 -.158 Sl No Airline Name Indian Airlines -.361 .886 -.074 Air Deccan 2.300 -.264 -.059 A Jet airways Kingfisher -.350 -.189 .643 B Indian airlines Unstandardized canonical discriminant C Air Deccan functions evaluated at group means D Kingfisher Graph 1 : Perceptual Map of four domestic airlines in India based on Perceived Service Quality: Discriminant Function 1 (horizontal axis) vs Function 2(vertical axis) 6 2 5 4 3 14 2 1 8 4 B 1 1 3 5 1 2 0 C D -4 -3 -2 -1 0 7 1 2 3 4 5 A -1 9 6 10 -2 3 11 -3 M Series 1
  • 9. Venkatesh et al, Service Quality ... 121 14 can be identified from Table 7 given 5.6 Cluster Analysis below. Cluster analysis was performed to find Table 7: Attribute Vectors based on out the similarity between brands and to Standardized Canonical Discriminant reiterate the positioning exercise done by Function Coefficients Discriminant analysis. An ANOVA conducted for cluster analysis showed 1 On time that all the service attributes to be 2 Delay information significantly different across the different 3 Announce delay clusters (Refer Table 8). 4 Good in-flight service 5 Good in-flight food Four major clusters were identified. Cross 6 Waiting time for baggage tabulation was conducted to find the 7 Baggage loss relationship between the brands and the 8 Compensate baggage loss four different clusters. Table 9 shows that most of the Jet Airways and Kingfisher 9 Good ground service customers belong to cluster 2. Indian 10 Refreshments on delay Airlines and Air Deccan customers 11 Accommodation on delay dominate cluster 3. Cluster 4 has a large 12 Online booking representation of customers of Indian 13 Discounted fare Airlines where as cluster 1 does not seem 14 Real benefits for frequent fliers to be very significant. Table 8: ANOVA Cluster Error Mean df Mean df F Signi Square Square on time 30.783 3 .940 126 32.745 .000 delay information 35.893 3 1.209 120 29.680 .000 announce delay 29.422 3 .687 116 42.822 .000 good inflight service 39.452 3 .715 123 55.167 .000 good inflight food 38.787 3 .695 118 55.770 .000 waiting time for baggage 16.200 3 .853 121 18.995 .000 baggage loss 37.954 3 .861 107 44.093 .000 compensate baggage loss 18.986 3 1.214 68 15.641 .000 good ground service 26.857 3 .846 113 31.728 .000 refreshments on delay 39.417 3 1.278 109 30.845 .000 accomodation on delay 34.155 3 1.291 92 26.456 .000 online booking 6.105 3 .677 102 9.020 .000 discounted fare 5.528 3 .900 113 6.140 .001 real benefits for frequent fliers 20.021 3 1.430 107 13.999 .000
  • 10. 122 Vilakshan, XIMB Journal of Management Table 9: Airline Name and Cluster Number of Case Cross tabulation Cluster Number of Case Total 1 2 3 4 airline name Jet Airways 0 27 5 7 39 Indian Airlines 1 7 17 15 40 Air Deccan 6 0 18 5 29 Kingfisher 2 15 4 5 26 Total 9 49 44 32 134 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
  • 11. 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). REFERENCES Identifying service gaps in commercial air travel: The first step toward quality Buttle, F(1996). SERVQUAL: Review, Critique, improvement. Transportation Journal, 31(1), Research Agenda , European Journal of 22-30. Marketing, 30,1, 8-32 Jordan,W. A. (1970). Airline regulation in America: Cunningham, L. F., Young C. E., & Lee, M (2004). Effects and imperfections. Baltimore: Johns Perceptions of airline service quality Pre and Hopkins University Press. Post 9/11. Public works Management & Policy, Kearney, T. J. (1986). Quality of service under airline 9(1), 10-25 deregulation. Doctoral dissertation, Indiana Cunningham, L. F., Young C. E., & Lee, M. (2002). University at Bloomington. Cross-cultural perspectives of service quality and risk in air transportation. Journal of Air Nargundkar, R (2003), Marketing Research, 2nd Transportation, 7(1), 3-26. Edition, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi
  • 12. 124 Vilakshan, XIMB Journal of Management Natalisa Diah and Subroto Budiarto(2003), and its implications for future research. “Effects of Management Commitment on Journal of Marketing, 49, 41-50. Service Quality to Increase Customer Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L. Satisfaction of Domestic Airlines in (1988). SERVPERF: A multiple-item scale for Indonesia” , Singapore Management Review, measuring consumer perceptions of service Volume 25 (1) quality. Journal of Retailing, 64, 28-31. Pandit, Ranjit V (2005). Why Believe in India. Wen Li, Ching and Chen K. Alice(1998). McKinsey Quarterly, Special Edition, 133-170 Quality Evaluation of Domestic Airline Parasuraman, A., Berry, L. L., & Zeithaml, V. A. Industry Using Modified Taguchi Loss (1991). Refinement and reassessment of the Function with Different Weights and Target SERVPERF Scale. Journal of Retailing, 67, 420- Values. Total Quality Management, 9(7), 150. 645-653 Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A.,& Berry, L. L. Zeithaml and Bitner (1996), Services Marketing, (1985).A conceptual model of service quality Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi
  • 13. Venkatesh et al, Service Quality ... 125 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
  • 14. 126 Vilakshan, XIMB Journal of Management 7. Baggage loss is a problem with 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 8. The airline compensates for lost baggage if such a situation arises, 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 9. The airline provides good check-in services 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 10. The airline provides refreshments whenever there is a delay 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 11. The airline provides accommodation if there is a very long delay 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 12. The airline provides online booking services 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 13. The airline offers discounted fare schemes 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 14. The airline offers real benefits to frequent fliers 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