An application of the airport service quality model in South Africa

Abstract

a b s t r a c tPassengers' expectations of service quality at airports are becoming increasingly important as air traffic grows. This research investigated passengers' perceptions of airport service quality at O.R. Tambo International Airport, South Africa. An existing model placing the concept of passenger expectations central to measuring an airport's specific level of performance was applied. The results proved significant in terms of the investment made by the airport in staff training and highlighted areas for improvement. The results show that business travellers and leisure travellers have different opinions regarding the importance of services offered by airports and of the level of performance at ORTIA in particular. Significant differences also occur in the perceptions of frequent travellers and infrequent travellers.Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. BackgroundSince 2006, the Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA) has invested about $2.5 billion expanding and upgrading infrastructure across its network of airports, aimed at matching infrastructure to anticipated tourist traffic growth. What differentiates these investments from others is the 2010 FIFA World Cup because all infrastructure investments essential to success was brought forward. Under this investment programme focus was placed on the end-user or air traveller with an airport-wide staff training programme being instituted aimed at providing exceptional levels of service, particularly for the period of the tournament (Airports Company South Africa, 2010). As a result, much media attention was focused on the quality of service to be expected at South African airports and particularly at O.R. Tambo International Airport (ORTIA) in Johannesburg, the key entry point into the country. Here we undertake an evaluation of whether ACSA was achieving its goal in meeting expectations on service quality at ORTIA. The concept of expectations underlies the selection of Fodness and Murray's (2007) methodology for measuring service quality with its focus on passenger expectations in service quality. Fodness and Murray suggest that for a model to be fully developed as a global measure of airport service quality, application within different cultural contexts is necessary. Thus, a secondary aim here is to apply the model of Fodness and Murray in a specific cultural context. Previous work on airport service quality has primarily focussed on service performance measure methodologies and Fodness and Murray suggested that literature could benefit from the application of gap-theory methodology for analysing service quality. As a result they developed, from best practices in marketing and services research, a conceptual theory-based model focussing on the dimensionality of passenger expectations of airport service quality. They conceded that in their study passenger data was collected in a "contextual void" because respondents were asked to indicate their expectation for airports in general, without taking into consideration passenger, trip or airport chara...

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