5 Passenger Satisfaction
Chapter two discussed various factors and attributes that may affect consumer satisfaction and loyalty. The purpose of this section is to identify these factors and attributes that may affect passengers atisfaction and loyalty. It is important here to remember that there are no real previous studies about passenger satisfaction and loyalty, all that had been found did not cover these areas in a comprehensive way or did not handle airline passengers in particular, thus one of the objectives of this study is to contribute to this area. Satisfying passengers in transportation services has an important effect on a carrier's long-term survival (Rhea and Shrock 1987), thus the ability of a carrier to differentiate its services allowing consumer satisfaction to become a strategic weapon rather than an operational tool (Distribution 1988). It was found that the emphasis on consumer satisfaction will continue to increase by as much as 11% every year (Goudge and Strasser 1988; Distribution 1988). This reflects the importance of this concept in marketing literature. There are three major forces causing this trend: first, customer expectation levels are higher, because as carriers provide higher levels of service in an effort to remain competitive, the minimum level of service that customers are willing to accept also rises (Goudge and Strasser 1988). Second, carriers' ability to evaluate their performance is improving (Distribution 1988, Samiee 1988). Third, more efficient logistics management compels better service (LaLonde 1986). Passenger dissatisfaction is growing , especially among the business travellers. A survey by Industry Week magazine (1987) shows that 85.5% of the survey respondents believe airline service has become more difficult, 44.9% said their flights were rarely on time and 88.3% said the whole process of travelling by air takes more time than five years ago. Also, the study showed that 85.5% found