Airport Service Quality: A Reconceptualization and a Practical Application on the Non-Aeronautical Services

Abstract

In line with the advancing airway capability, the non-aeronautical business opportunities at airports are also in growth. To attract more passengers or to generate extra income over non-aeronautical services, the airport decision-makers need to evaluate the quality of their services. This study aims at introducing an expanded approach to improve airport service quality aspects of the non-aeronautical business opportunities. Given the increasing number of airports, passengers prefer airports, which provide better or extra services compared to others. To reveal the airport service quality (ASQ) aspects, together with the quality department experts, we conducted a qualitative study that put forward six significant dimensions for an effective evaluation of airport service quality at an airport. Based on the results of the qualitative study, we designed the sector-specific questionnaire, and its empirical data is conducted over 250 passengers through a face-toface survey. Survey results introduce a practical assessment tool for the use of airport managers to gather strategic inputs on their strategic plans and quality implications. Results also contribute to the literature by presenting a comprehensive understanding of the airport service quality.

How to Achieve Passenger Satisfaction in the Airport? Findings from Regression Analysis and Necessary Condition Analysis Approaches through Online Airport Reviews

“…In airport literature, the term "service quality" refers to superiority or excellence in service delivery [20,21]. In other words, service quality reflects the gap between customers' expectations and the perception of the service received [22].…”

“…Along with defining sufficient and necessary antecedents for passenger satisfaction, this study utilizes online reviews in airport research, an area that remains under-researched [15]. Thus, while the current literature analyzes online reviews in the air transport sector using a variety of methods, including multinominal logistic regression [7], one-way ANOVA [69], sentiment analysis [67], response surface analysis [93], latent semantic analysis [39], PLS path modeling [40], content analysis [20], structural topic modeling [94], and CONCOR analysis [37], this study applied the NCA method for the first time. Finally, this study is one of the few that examines passenger satisfaction in the post-COVID-19 era [95][96][97][98].…”

The World Airport Awards as a Quality Distinctive and Marketing Tool for Airports

“…Moreover, Bulut and Aydogan (2020) [39] revealed that the decision-makers should improve the passenger service quality. It helps decision-makers where to focus as a strategic priority.…”