A Study of Customer Satisfaction in Airlines

This paper aims to evaluate the customer satisfaction of the airline industry in Hong Kong by using the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA). A list of 11 attributes is identified and rated using a five-point Likert scale. The IPA reveals that Full Service Carrier (FSC) should improve its on-time performance and seat comfortability while there is no concentration in Low Cost Carrier (LCC). Moreover, it has been found that crew attentiveness is overdone by FSC while check-in services are overkilled by both FSC and LCC. Furthermore, the overall performance of FSC is found to be satisfactory but not LCC by their customers. The results are important for airlines to identify the key areas for strategic focus and particularly relevant for developing strategy for the air transport industry in HK. Future research could consider attributes like terminal tangibles if FSC and LCC are using different terminal location and/or facilitate.