state-owned airlines, as well as non-state controlled or private
carriers, were not included. Baggage handling was also not covered.
Compared with this, our study is much broader, being based on a
quarterly panel data set covering twelve large, small, state
controlled and non-state controlled carriers. It is the first study for
China that can provide a more comprehensive analysis of the relationship
between customer satisfaction and service quality factors,
such as on-time performance of scheduled flights and baggage
handling. Second, since 2006, the CAAC has been placing more
emphasis on the rights of passengers and directing more resources
into investigating passenger complaints and encouraging service
quality improvements. Consequently, starting in 2009, it designated
15 March as the ‘passengers’ rights day’ in order to persuade the
carriers to provide better service quality to their customers. As a
result, our study is timely in providing a greater understanding of
the key service quality factors that account for variations in the
customer complaints received and in helping to plan for future
policy measures. Third, our empirical results obtained in this
research can provide information for the management of carriers to
help them plan for the improvement of their service quality.
This paper is composed of four parts. In the next section, we will
discuss the data and methodology which has been adopted. In
Section 3, we will report and discuss our empirical results. In the
last section, we will conclude our discussion.