The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the in-flight
service quality on airline customer satisfaction and loyalty. This study analyzed the
data from passengers of two classes: prestige (business) and economy. The results
suggest that there are different factors of in-flight service quality that are important
according to the customer seat class. In the case of the prestige class, there were six
service quality factors of importance: alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage,
responsiveness and empathy, reliability, assurance, presentation style of food, and
food quality; while the economy class showed five important service quality factors:
responsiveness and empathy, food quality, alcoholic beverage, non-alcoholic beverage,
and reliability. These findings imply that airline companies’ in-flight service
should have different delivery strategies based on the customer seat class.