Maintenance-related service failures and airline reputational risk: A mixed-method document analysis and risk index approach

Abstract

Aviation maintenance is commonly evaluated through airworthiness, safety, reliability, compliance, and operational continuity, but its reputational implications remain less examined when technical disruptions become publicly visible. This study examined how maintenance-related service failures may contribute to airline reputational risk using a qualitative-dominant mixed-method document analysis of secondary documentary and public digital trace data. The corpus included 16 anonymized maintenance-related airline disruption cases reported from 2019 to 2025 across Southeast Asia, wider Asia-Pacific, North America, Europe, and the Middle East. A total of 168 public documents and digital trace records were analyzed, including aviation news reports, airline advisories, online reviews, public complaints, and social media posts. Directed and inductive content analysis identified reputational risk themes, while descriptive frequency analysis and the exploratory Maintenance-Linked Reputational Risk Index (MLRRI) were used to classify relative risk severity across cases. Findings showed that technical delays, visible cabin defects, cancellations due to aircraft defects, aircraft substitutions, return-to-gate events, and emergency diversions became reputationally salient when publicly interpreted through safety concern, maintenance doubt, trust erosion, negative word-of-mouth, or response inadequacy. MLRRI classifications ranged from moderate to severe, with higher classifications observed in emergency diversion and return-to-gate cases. However, visible cabin defects and poorly communicated technical delays also showed elevated reputational sensitivity. Airline response quality appeared to be a descriptive differentiator, as clearer, timely, empathetic, and corrective responses were associated with weaker escalation. The study proposes the MLRRAM and exploratory MLRRI as initial, non-validated tools for structured analysis of maintenance-linked reputational risk in digitally visible aviation contexts.