Authors : Premkumar Balaraman, Kalpanan Kosalram and Sungkrityayan Khan
Abstract: The main objective of the paper is to assess the existing service quality metrics, analyze airline industry service process and gain insights on service quality gaps airlines industry. The literature review on service quality models and the initial airline industry desktop study using secondary sources of data enable to focus on the airline industry service quality metrics and service process. In an attempt to gain exploratory insights on service quality gaps in Airline industry, the research paper attempts to explore the Indian Airline market using qualitative tools. Forming the 10 focus groups was carefully planned and sample size 5 per group was chosen with convenient sampling. The SERVQUAL Model seems to best fit in explaining the service quality gaps in Airline industry. Amongst the various ratings, Airline Quality Rating (AQR) is found to be one of the best suited service quality metrics. In service industries, quality tools are more effective when they are industry specific. LEAN tool is best suited TQM tool for Airline industry which can solve issues on long waiting times, material movements and others. Service quality factors like on time arrival, cabin crew appearance, cleanliness, airport amenities, customer care, web page appearance and usability also play a significant role in affecting the overall service quality. The radical shift towards Low Cost Carriers (LCCs) poses new challenges in delivering expected services in Airline Industry.
Premkumar Balaraman, Kalpanan Kosalram and Sungkrityayan Khan, 2016. Service Quality Insights from Airline Industry. International Business Management, 10: 6075-6086.