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Open Access

Degirmenci et al., 1:5

http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/scientificreports.294

Review Article Open Access

Open Access Scientific ReportsScientific Reports

Open Access

Volume 1 Issue 5 2012

Keywords: SERVQUAL; Customer satisaction; Service quality;CRM; Loyalty; Airline Service Quality.

Introduction

In the aviation sector, investments and volume o business areincreasing each day, and depending on this, competition increasinglydeepens. Airline companies must be financially strong to find a place

or themselves and survive in this deeply competitive world since intoday's world, almost all o the hundreds o studies conducted underthe heading the most powerul companies" are already related tothe financial power. Financial power is about the product sold. Tesale o a product is possible only when customer satisaction is met.Also companies have realized that they have to listen to consumers tosurvive in a competitive market [1] and airline companies also havebecome aware o the importance o having happy customers [2].Te pre-requisite o the customer satisaction is understanding andknowing what they want. Tis imperative gave birth to the concept"CRM (Customer Relationship Management)". Tis concept is aboutcustomer satisaction.

Customer satisaction, afer a step leads to the concept o customer

loyalty. According to Oliver [3], loyalty is the highest level o satisaction.According to Kramer [4], the more the customer satisaction is,the lower the transaction costs are and the higher the fidelity is.Sirdeshmukh et al. [5] suggest that i the value increases offered to thecustomer by an airline afer it loyalty comes. Cronin and Steven [6] andButcher et al. [7] showed that the quality o service affects the tendencyto purchase again as a result o increased satisaction. Based on these,in our study service quality at urkish Airlines was measured usingweighted SERVQUAL method.

Tis study differs rom previous SERVQUAL studies in somesignificant respects: First, it is the first application that its criteria wereconstituted based on the SKYRAX criteria. Second, all the expectationswere accepted as 5 (the highest rating level) thereby, it is aimed to showthat the distance which should be taken to achieve the best in all the

areas. Tird, the study identified a new actor e-commerce which hasnot been considered beore although it is very important nowadays.And a new model called the spiral o loyalty was developed in this

study. Tis model is related to degree o customer loyalty. In additionto these, sample size in this study is large compared to the sample sizeso previous studies and nationality distribution o this study is broadlysymmetrical. Tus, it can be said that this study is valid on global scope.

Concepts and a New Model: Spiral of Loyalty

In our study, we developed a new model called "Te spiral o

loyalty". Tis model aims to show that the customer approaches tothe companys value center gradually and thus aims to identiy thedegree o customer loyalty. Figure 1 show that a customer, who cannotbe seen in the spiral o loyalty, is approaching to the companys value

center gradually afer entering the spiral and the spiral ends with loyalcustomers. In addition, loyal customers all into a ring at their end-stage. Tis ring is a secure area where all customer types are required

to be included, and advanced to the area so that this would explain theaim o this model.

According to Diner[8], service is benefit or satisaction offered tothe market activity or by depending on the sale o goods. According to

Goetsch and Stanley[9] service is to perorm work or someone else.

Quality means compliance with requirements [10]. he servicequality model by Grnroos holds that the quality o a service should

be divided into two: technical quality and unctional quality. echnicalquality is related with the quality o main products; unctional qualityis related with service purchasing processes that reflect the experiences

*Corresponding author: Elif Degirmenci, Department of Industrial Engineering,

Yildiz Technical University, Barbaros Street, Yildiz, Istanbul 34349, Turkey, E-mail:

[email protected]

ReceivedDecember 08, 2012; PublishedAugust 11, 2012

Citation:Degirmenci E, Basligil H, Bolat A, Ozdemir Y (2012) Customer Satisfac-

tion Measurement in Airline Services Using Servqual.1: 294. doi:10.4172/scienti-

creports.294

Copyright: 2012 Degirmenci E, et al. This is an open-access article distributedunder the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits

unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the

original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Recently, airline companies have realized the importance of satised customers to nd a place for themselves inthis competitive world and initiated many projects to measure service quality and satisfy the customers by improving

service quality. Based on this, in this study, in order to evaluate customer satisfaction at Turkish Airlines, the factors

affecting customers experience were analyzed using weighted SERVQUAL methodology. In addition, the gap

between Turkish Airlines current service quality and 5-star service quality dened by SKYTRAX (the most acceptedairline quality rating organization that uses evaluations of airline customers from all over the world) was measured.

The analysis and the results were extended by constructing 5 hypotheses.

This research varies in many ways from the studies in the literature. In determining the factors affecting customers

experience, unlike the studies in the literature, SKYTRAX customer satisfaction criteria were considered. Factor

analysis grouped the questions included in the survey into 6 factors (dimensions): ground handling, employees,in-ight services, e-commerce, image and empathy. The results suggested that image dimension has the highestcustomer satisfaction level; employees and empathy dimensions followed the image. e-commerce has the lowest

satisfaction level; in-ight services and ground handling service followed that. Another result is that meals andpassenger transferring services have the highest impact on customer satisfaction. Furthermore, as expected noneof service quality dimensions are around the desired 5-star customer satisfaction level dened by SKYTRAX.

Customer Satisfaction Measurement in Airline Services Using ServqualElif Degirmenci*, Huseyin Basligil, Ahmet Bolat and Yavuz OzdemirYildiz Technical University Department of Industrial Engineering
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Citation: Degirmenci E, Basligil H, Bolat A, Ozdemir Y (2012) Customer Satisfaction Measurement in Airline Services Using Servqual . 1: 294.

doi:10.4172/scienticreports.294

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o service procurement processes [11]. Quality is defined by customers

and perceived quality is the direction and degree o difference between

customer expectations and perceptions [12,13]. In other words service

quality is the measure o the difference between customers expectations

and the perceived ones [12,13].

Servqual in Airline Services

In literature, there are various studies measuring the quality o

airline service. SERVQUAL method is a popular approach to this. Most

o these studies aim to show the relationships between service quality

and related issues. Surovitskikh and Lubbe[14] classified airline service

quality in terms o three items: consistency o service, reliability o

service, and augmented products. Te study examines the positioning

o our selected Middle Eastern airlines in the South Arican business

and leisure travel environment. Since the study is related with our

airlines in a specific region, it can be said that the coverage o the

study is high according to studies measuring one airline. Tat study

examines the relationship between service quality and age, numbero flights, income group, purpose o travel and the carrier. Gourdin

[15] classified airline service quality in terms o three items: price,

saety, and timelines. Gilbert and Wong[16] used employees, acilities,

customization, flight patterns, assurance, reliability, responsiveness as

the dimensions o service quality. Tey detected significant differences

among passengers o different ethnic groups/nationalities as well as

among passengers who travel or different purposes, such as business,

holiday and visiting riends/relatives. Pakdil and Aydn [17] identified

employees, tangibles, responsiveness, reliability and assurance, flight

patterns, availability, image, and empathy as dimensions o their study.

In that study responsiveness and empathy dimensions are very close

to each other in terms o meaning. Tey proposed that the passengers

educational level is an important variable affecting the quality o service.Chang and Yeh [18] proposed on-board comort, airline employees,

reliability o service, convenience o service, handling o abnormal

conditions as service quality dimensions. A uzzy multicriteria analysis

(MA) model was used to ormulate the problem. Te study also covers

our airlines as in Surovitskikh and Lubbes study [14].

Although there are some changes in the quality dimensions used

in evaluating similar airline services, SERVQUAL is a commonly used

method. Airline service quality dimensions can be grouped under

the heading o SERVQUAL. Furthermore, the relationships can be

expanded according to the purpose o the study.

While some aspects o our study are similar to the studies in the

literature, there is a crucial point differentiating our study rom theliterature. In this research, we employed weighted SERVQUAL method

based on the Skytrax criteria. Tis approach is the first in the literature.

Methodology

Questionnaire design

Survey orms were designed according to Skytrax, the most acceptedand prestigious official airline quality 5-star rating organization,system and criteria. 34-item questionnaire was designed to overlapwith Skytraxs 34 basic criteria. Te survey orms were prepared inEnglish and urkish to increase communication, convenience, and theresponse rate. Te orms consisted o two sections. Te first ocused onpassengers demographic profiles like sex, flight requency, and so on.Te second consisted o 34 statements covering the service satisactiono airline passengers and a likert scale. In our design, a 5-likert scale wasused in accordance with Skytraxs 5 stars. Perceptions were rated rom1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree.

All customers' expectations have been accepted as 5 so that the bestwas aimed in the improvement o the service quality. In other words, we

wanted to show the distance to be taken to reach a service quality whichis beyond the customer's expectation. Since the expectations have beenaccepted as 5, instead o measuring both expectations and perceptions,the questionnaire was designed to measure the perceptions only. In thelast step, the questionnaire was examined by executives at the airlineand their contributions were incorporated.

Survey distribution and evaluation

Tis study was conducted in all long-haul flights in a specific day, 75flights in total. Questionnaires were applied during flight. o make thesample more representatives, the study was perormed in the last houro the flights. 9000 questionnaires were distributed in total and 2000completions o the questionnaire were calculated. Afer eliminating themissing data, 1110 convenient questionnaires remained. Data obtainedrom surveys were evaluated using SPSS 15.0.

Research method

All customers' expectations have been accepted as 5. As a method,the weighted SERVQUAL method was applied to measure servicequality in urkish Airlines.

Implementation and Analysis

Reliability analysis

Reliability analysis was perormed to prove whether all surveyquestions are closely related with each other, and perceived by allrespondents in the same way or not. For reliability, Cronbach's

Alpha Internal Consistency Analysis was applied. A Cronbach alphacoefficient varies between 0.00 and 1.00 and it is expected to have0.70 or higher [19,20]. In this study was ound 0.964 which is verysatisactory. However, to make a healthy assessment, contribution oeach question to this coefficient was also investigated. Results show thatall cases were 0.7. Tus the internal consistency is very high or eachquestion. In other words, each question is reliable.

However, each actors internal consistency must also be provided.Firstly, the overall reliability or each actor, then reliability or each caseo removal o the each question rom relevant actor, was calculated asshown in table 1. Te questions in each actor were analyzed.

Since all coefficients greater than 0.7, all the actors are reliable inthemselves. Besides this, or each case o the removal o each question

rom the related actor is analyzed. According to the results,I any question is removed rom the first actor, reliability does not

increase considerably. So no question is removed.

Figure 1: Spiral of Loyalty.
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I any question is removed rom the second actor, reliability doesnot increase considerably. Tereore, none o the questions is removedrom the analysis.

I any question is removed rom the third actor, reliability doesnot increase considerably. Tereore, none o the questions is removedrom the analysis.

I the 14th question is removed, the ourth actors reliabilityincreases to 0.921. Tus, the 14th question is removed and the reliabilityis recalculated. Te ourth actors internal consistency (reliability)increased to 921.

I the 21th question is removed, the ourth actors reliabilityincreases to 0.840. So the 21th question is removed and the reliabilityis recalculated. Te fifh actors internal consistency (reliability)increased to 0.840.

Lastly, since the sixth actor has two questions, so calculations arecontinued with these questions.

Validity analysis

It is necessary or the validity o a questionnaire to be reliable, but

not enough. Tereore, afer reliability has been proven, actor analysismust be done to demonstrate the validity. Firstly two prerequisites othe actor analysis were perormed.

Bartlett est (Sphericity est): Bartletts measure defines whetheractor analysis is necessary or not. Bartlett measure was ound 0.000

which is highly significant. Tat is, there are some relationshipsbetween the variables we hope to include in the analysis. Tereore, theactor analysis is appropriate.

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) est: Te KMO measures thesampling adequacy which should be greater than 0.5 or a satisactoryactor analysis. Furthermore, values between 0.5 and 0.7 are mediocre,

values between 0.7 and 0.8 are good, values between 0.8 and 0.9 are

great and values above 0.9 are superb. KMO measure was ound 0,938which all into the range o being superb. Tereore, we are confident

that the actor analysis is appropriate or these sample size.

Anti-Image Matrix: Via this matrix, it is determined whethereach question is suitable or actor analysis or not. o perorm a actor

analysis, all elements on the diagonal o this matrix should be greaterthan 0.5. Since all the variables are independent rom one another,

varimax method was applied. Since Covaraince matrix is >0.50, all

questions placed in the questionnaire are suitable or actor analysisin our study.

Rotated Factor Loading Matrix: In this table (able 2), thequestions with the highest actor loadings have been brought together.

I a question has close actor loadings under more than one actor,

that question was removed rom the analysis. According to this, the5th, 11th, 18th, 22nd and 23 questions were removed. In addition, i a

question has less than a 0.45 actor load, it was removed due to the rule.

According to this, the 10th question was removed rom the analysis. In

addition, according to the results o the reliability analysis, the 14th and

21th questions were removed.

Afer the reliability analysis was perormed and related questions

were removed rom the study, the final actor analysis was perormed

and 5 actors were extracted rom the data set via principal components

analysis. But it was noticed that questions 32, 33 and 34 placed in the

first actor are related with image and these questions could constitute a

single actor which would be more specific in itsel. So it was considered

as a separate actor. In this way, 6 actors were identified in total. In

table 3, each actor, actor loadings and reliabilities or each actor are

shown.

Demographic results

Questions in the first part o the questionnaires were analyzed.

Frequencies related with the customers demographic data werecalculated and shown in the table 4.

According to the results, nationality distribution is broadly

symmetrical. Tis is an important finding so that findings o this

study are valid globally. Another result is that experience is the most

important reason or selecting an airline and price is ollowing that.

FACTORS RELIABILITY

Ground Services and Compliance Factor 0.883

Image 0.8877

Staff 0.745

In-ight Services 0.866

E-Commerce Services 0.796

Empathy 0.796

Table 1: Factors and reliabilities.

QUESTIONS1 2 3 4 5 6

Question_1 .851 .103 .123 .048 .201 .147

Question_2 .845 .107 .110 .085 .153 .078

Question_3 .804 .158 .240 .002 .164 .067

Question_4 .740 .252 .178 .050 .174 .126

Question_17 .665 .276 .152 .195 .099 .249Question_29 .550 .391 .183 .211 .339 .160

Question_30 .497 .493 .039 .223 .320 .200

Question_23 .480 .412 .062 .237 .060 .241

Question_26 .294 .676 .213 .226 .149 .058

Question_25 .276 .668 .331 .267 .128 -.029

Question_24 .188 .644 .284 .112 .159 .210

Question_27 .122 .640 .130 .122 .358 .098

Question_28 .299 .624 .202 .188 .066 .379

Question_19 .078 .568 .363 .019 .245 .151

Question_20 .190 .559 .248 -5.37E-005 .421 .282

Question_31 .185 .557 .369 .125 .184 .268

Question_18 .482 .551 .210 .114 .044 .138

Question_22 .388 .434 .207 .273 .360 .088

Question_7 .143 .283 .745 .205 .220 -.032Question_9 .137 .229 .709 .116 .078 .337

Question_8 .156 .280 .618 .263 .063 .304

Question_5 .373 .362 .612 .121 .008 -.012

Question_11 .167 .214 .511 .390 .206 .397

Question_6 .292 .268 .444 .200 .357 -.188

Question_12 .103 .115 .237 .870 .169 .128

Question_13 .150 .205 .252 .850 .095 .084

Question_14 .105 .301 .070 .605 .115 .482

Question_33 .368 .292 .120 .155 .697 .112

Question_34 .398 .355 .099 .261 .622 .135

Question_21 .139 .323 .363 -.027 .536 .359

Question_32 .464 .435 .084 .248 .504 .053

Question_10 .259 -.016 .395 .221 .440 .435

Question_15 .335 .310 .223 .234 .177 .640

Question_16 .416 .333 .124 .199 .157 .621

Table 2: Rotated component matrix.

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Furthermore, customers generally make their own decisions in airlinechoices instead o using travel agencies.

Calculation of weighted SERVQUAL score

Steps to be ollowed in applying the method are as ollows:

Step 1:Servqual score is calculated or each question in relevant

actor or each customer in accordance with the ollowing ormula.

SERVQUAL score (SS) = Perception Score Expectation Score

Step 2:For each question, weighted SERVQUAL score is calculated

by multiplying the questions actor loading. Tis procedure is applied

to all questions.

Step 3:In the relevant actor, each questions weighted SERVQUAL

scores are collected. Tus, customers weighted servqual score is

obtained or relevant actor.

Step 4:Te same processes are repeated or all customers. Tus,

or each customer, weighted SERVQUAL score in each dimension is

obtained.

Step 5:All customers weighted SERVQUAL scores or the first

dimension are collected and divided by the total number o customers.Tus, the final weighted SERVQUAL score o the first dimension is

obtained.

Step 6:Te same process is repeated or each dimension.

Step 7: Each actors SERVQUAL scores are collected and thisresult is divided by the total number o the dimensions and the finalweighted SERVQUAL score is ound.

By applying the steps described above, the weighted SERVQUALscores or each question mean scores, standard deviations, andweighted SERVQUAL scores or each actor were calculated and are

presented (able 5).

Servqual factors for each factor

First, overall average customer assessments were ound or questionsseparated according to the six dimensions. In addition, according tothe ratings given by Skytrax in six dimensions, average scores werecalculated and then the differences between customer satisaction andSkytrax are calculated. Te difference between the Skytrax score eversince the last issue in relation to each actor, were calculated to showthe direction o change in the perception o customers (able 6).

Te positive values show the improvement achieved since the dayo evaluation. Since the customer perception and satisaction is higherthan last Skytrax evaluation score, these areas experienced a positive

increase. According to these data, the largest increase was experiencedin 'empathy' dimension.

Negative values represent the cases that customer perception

QUESTIONSFACTORS RELIABILITY

1 2 3 4 5 6

FACTOR 1 .883

27) There are sufcient non-stop ights .755

26) Frequencies of ights are acceptable .622

20)The amount of fare meets my expectations .619

24) Delays and cancels are rarely happen .576

25)Flight schedules are convenient .569

31) Baggage problem operations were sufcient .564

28) Delayed passengers were tolerated fairly .547

19) Transfer passenger transportation is sufcient .531

FACTOR 2 .877

34) My ight experience reects the image of THY .615

33) Aircraft exterior reects the image of THY .599

32) Appearance of crew reects the corporate image .587

FACTOR 3 .745

30) Families with children or elderly receive enough care .493

1) Behavior of staff is reliable .843

2) Staff are polite and friendly .841

3) Staff are knowledgeable .825

4) Language skills of staff are sufcient .739

17) Employees willingness to help is agreeable .595

29) There is individual attention to passengers .554

FACTOR 4 .921

7) In-ight entertainment is sufcient .752

9) On board, phone service is sufcient .740

8) In-ight newspaper and magazines are sufcient .685

6) Choices for catering and taste of food are sufcient .418

FACTOR 5 .843

12)Web site was easy to use .870

13) Contents of the web site was sufcient .835FACTOR 6 .728

16) Staff attitude in case of unexpected situations was acceptable .698

15) Priority boarding as available as needed .674

Table 3: New Reliabilities.

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is lower than Skytraxs last rating. Tis situation shows that the

importance shown to these properties (questions) is not sustainable.

In-flight services and e-commerce services could be given as examples.

Accordingly, or a sustainable quality in in-flight services, a survey

study on customer preerences will be effective. With presentations andmeeting the customer expectations, both satisaction and sustainability

will be achieved.

Decline in customer perception o e-commerce is related with

ensuring up to date content and the introduction o new technologies

related to the web. oday, a very intense competition is experienced

in the aviation sector and this competition is usually in electronic

environment. o give an example newly established airline companies

web sites allow changes on a ticket. However, when this study was

conducted, urkish Airlines web site did not allow changes on a

ticket because o mainrame-based sub-structure. Tis created many

problems or customers. Based on this, urkish Airlines web site

needs to be improved since a web site is the most crucial tool in todays

competitive business world. urkish Airlines conducted a project in2011, and now on its web site, ticket change (re-issue) has become

possible.

Te results suggested that according to the gap scores, empathy

dimension has the highest customer satisaction level; image and

e-commerce dimensions ollowed the empathy. In these three

dimensions, customer satisaction is met in general.

Ground handling service has the lowest satisaction level. Tis is

ollowed by the dimensions, and respectively, employees and in-flight

services. Tese three dimensions are quite ar rom Skytraxs 5 star

satisaction level.

Evaluation of the dimension of image: Tis dimension has the

highest satisaction with SERVQUAL score -0.440. Tis is also an

indicator o the distance to catch up Skytraxs 5 stars satisaction level.

Te perception scores o eatures in this dimension are approximately

the same. In other words, urkish Airlines has a brand image in minds

o its customers, and this image can be elt rom the physical appearance

o the planes to the image o the employees in all areas. Park et al. [21]

claim that passengers repurchase and recommendation intentions areinfluenced by the airline image; so, this result is important. Based on

this, i the Corporate Communications Department carries out some

sustainable innovations as image study, this may help to improve the

customer perception more.

Evaluation of the dimension of employees: Te second dimension

is the dimension o employees that provides the highest satisaction

with -0,513. Many reasons lie behind this gap score. One o them is

a continuous increase in the number o cabin crew during 2009 and

2010. At the end o the year 2010, the number o teams was increased

by 33% compared to January. In December, that number increased

even more. Te continuous and intense increase in the number o

employees reduced the sustainable quality. raining o a small number

o employees and training o a large number o employees cannot begiven the same result. urkish Airlines has increased the training o

cabin crew based on this idea. New studies are expected to reflect the

results o these trainings.

Evaluation of the dimension of empathy: Empathy dimension has

the third highest customer satisaction with SERVQUAL score -0,658.

Tis dimension consists o two properties: behaviors in the unexpected

situations and behaviors in needs. Te results show that customers'

needs in these two properties are met in general. Tese two eatures

have a very similar degree o individual satisaction.

Evaluation of the dimension of e-commerce transactions: Tere

is a serious sense o dissatisaction about e-commerce services. -0,989

SERVQUAL score is so ar rom Skytraxs 5 stars satisaction level.E-commerce dimension consists o two eatures: ease o use and

content o the website. Web site's ease o use has relatively lower

satisaction according to the content. Tis may be the result o the

customers comparison between urkish Airlines web site and the

other companies. urkish Airlines' website was established many years

ago. Tere hasnt been a radical design change since then. In this period,

many new airline companies were established in the world, and these

firms have recently set up web sites using the new technology and the

analysis techniques to meet customer expectations. urkish Airlines

planned new, advanced, innovative and competitive web site should be

put into service as soon as possible. As a suggestion, the web site should

serve in different languages and this will be an important unctionality.

In addition, another attractive eature may be new payment channels.Evaluation of the dimension of in-flight services: Te second

issue that has emerged as the most distant perection. Tis dimension

Gender % of total respondents

Woman

Man

33.2

66.8

Nationality

Turkey

Other

More than one nationality

41.5

58

0.5

Education

Primary

High School

University and higher

5.8

20

74.2

Frequency of ight

Less than once a month

Once a month

More than once a month

53.5

19.5

27

Purpose of the ight

Business

Vacation

Other

More than one purpose

48.6

27.8

13

10.5

Mostly preferred airline company

Turkish Airlines

Other

Sometimes TK sometimes other

66.2

30.3

3.5

Helping person in choice

My own/FamilyFriendsTravel Agency

Other

More than one

55.2

5.8

25.4

9.9

3.7

Most effective reason for airline preference

Experience

Recommendation

Price & other benetsAdvertisements

Other

More than one (included price)

More than one (excluded price)

39.2

7.4

32.4

1.1

7.7

10.6

1.6

Preferred ight class

Business

Economy

Business or economy

12.1

85.7

2.3

Table 4: Frequency data summary.
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with -0,897 SERVQUAL score is the second most distant dimensionrom SKYRAXs 5 star satisaction level.

In the category o Economy Class Meal Service, urkish Airlines

was awarded with the 'World's Best Airline' award in the World AirlineAwards survey conducted by Skytrax. Tereore the questions wereanalyzed in detail and the results showed that eatures related withmeals and flight entertainment programs had higher scores. Reason orthe SERVQUAL score -0,897 is dissatisaction with the phone serviceand the distribution o newspapers and magazines during the flight.(able 7)

urkish Airlines initiated a project in 2010, about telephone serviceduring the flight. In order to achieve the satisaction o Skytrax 5 starin in-flight services; these project activities should be accelerated andput into effect. It is expected that the results will be reflected in uturestudies.

Flight entertainment programs are good or overall satisaction,

but it still needs to be improved to achieve the satisaction o Skytrax 5stars. In the flight entertainment screens, it is possible to measure therating. Tis is meaningul in terms o a eedback rom customers. In

addition, program loading plans made according to eedback can helpto catch a 5 star satisaction.

Evaluation of the dimension of ground handling services: Tis

dimension with -0,701 SERVQUAL score is the third most distantdimension rom SKYRAXs 5 star satisaction level. Te underlyingreason is that the period o the questionnaires was the period whenurkish Airlines' ground handling services was transerred to anothercompany. It is known as the transition period. I the same situationcontinues, urgent policy should be taken on ground handling services.When a current state analysis is conducted, results o this study will bea guide since the data o this study is the actual customer data. In thisway, customer losses caused by dissatisaction on the ground handlingservices could be prevented.

Te most important feature affecting customer satisfaction

o know the eature affecting the customer satisaction the mostis important or the determination o the point which is critical to get

starting customer satisaction studies. By this way, the most influentialeatures in satisaction were identified. Multiple regression analysis wasused as the method.

QUESTIONS CALCULATIONS

FACTOR 1 Average Standard Deviation Weighted Servqual Score FACTOR 1

27) There are sufcient non-stop ights 3.8901 1.05132 -0.6182

-0,701

26) Frequencies of ights are acceptable 4.0120 .88411 -0.505

20)The amount of fare meets my expectations 3.9478 .97275 -0.48

24) Delays and cancels are rarely happen 3.6566 1.11635 -0.5785

25)Flight schedules are convenient 3.9192 .96731 0.5279

31) Baggage problem operations were sufcient 4.0014 .95675 -0.36

28) Delayed passengers were tolerated fairly 3.8871 .98328 -0.35

19) Transfer passenger transportation is sufcient 3.6287 1.21574 -0.64


34) My ight experience reects the image of THY 4.2746 .81926 -0.4

-0,440

33) Aircraft exterior reects the image of THY 4.2953 .83279 -0.3734

32) Appearance of crew reects the corporate image 4.3069 .79246 -0.36

FACTOR 3 Average Standard Deviation Weighted Servqual Score FACTOR 330) Families with children or elderly receive enough care 4.1960 .86865 -0.266

-0,513

1) Behavior of staff is reliable 4.4468 .70676 -0.45

2) Staff are polite and friendly 4.4780 .73229 -0.43

3) Staff are knowledgeable 4.325 .7636 -0.5

4) Language skills of staff are sufcient 4.1626 .86035 -0.57

17) Employees willingness to help is agreeable 4.2513 .77080 -0.388

29) There is individual attention to passengers 3.9889 .96879 -0.45


7) In-ight entertainment is sufcient 3.4923 1.16410 -0.1

-0,8979) On board, phone service is sufcient 3.3491 1.25387 -0.65

8) In-ight newspaper and magazines are sufcient 3.4476 1.28403 -0.94

6) Choices for catering and taste of food are sufcient 4.0813 .96535 -0.36


12)Web site was easy to use 3.8571 1.13279 -0.66 -0,989

13) Contents of the web site was sufcient 3.8581 1.09774 -0.64


16) Staff attitude in case of unexpected situations was acceptable 4.1200 .90482 -0.4-0,658

15) Priority boarding as available as needed 3.9945 .99512 -0.45

Table 5: Servqual Scores.

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Te values in R Square column show that the properties in the

survey explains 76% o the variance overall satisaction. Coefficient

(Coefficients) table shows the regression coefficients used or regression

equation and their significance levels. Column o the significance o

ANOVA table shows the relationship between these variables at p

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studies. In addition, since all selected flights or this study areinternational flights, leg based wrong analysis were prevented.

2. Unlike previous studies, all the criteria o this study wereestablished based on Skytrax criteria. Likert scale was designedwith five intervals to be appropriate with the Skytrax evaluationsystem also. Unlike past studies, all the expectations wereaccepted as five in order to show the gap remaining to catchup Skytraxs 5 star satisaction level to the company's managers

3. In addition, even though some o the dimensions are similarto those presented in previous studies, e-commerce is a new

dimension in our study and it is one o the most importantconcepts today.

Conclusion

Exploratory actor analysis was used to extract the items thatprovided a reliable measure o the constructs under investigationin this study and as a result, questions were grouped in six actors(dimensions). Tese actors are ground handling, employees, in-flightservices, e-commerce, image and empathy. Tese six actors explainedapproximately 70% o the total variance.

Te results suggested that according to the gap scores, imagedimension has the highest customer satisaction level; employees andempathy dimensions ollowed the image. In these three dimensions, it

was observed that customer satisaction was met in general. On the otherhand, e-commerce dimension has the lowest satisaction level. Tis isollowed by the dimensions o in-flight services and ground handling

and convenient respectively. Tese three dimensions are quite ar romSkytraxs 5 star satisaction level. On the basis o the service qualitygaps, it was discovered that none o passengers perceptions caught upSkytraxs 5-star level in any o the dimensions. Tis finding confirmsthat airline management should be more committed to perormanceimprovement and alert or improvement opportunities throughout theservice delivery processes.

According to the results, the dimensions o in-flight services ande-commerce services were observed to have allen behind the latestassessment o Skytrax. Tis is an indicator o deteriorating. Some

suggestions were given about this. All comparisons and calculationswere carried out based on the Skytraxs economy category ratings.Tus, without distinction o class, it is aimed to develop a model whichwill provide the best in all categories. However, in economy class sincethere is no CIP lounge service, evaluations about CIP were carried outbased on business class. In all categories, Skytraxs long-haul scoreswere taken into consideration. Te reason or this is because all thesurveys were perormed in more than 2, 5 hour flights.

Te most important dimension affecting customer satisaction isaccordingly the delicious and a variety o dishes and ground handlingservices. Tis is a very critical finding since this result can be aundamental guide or projects to improve the satisaction. Tereore,changes or innovations to improve customer satisaction must be

initiated rom the ood and transer services.In this study five hypotheses were developed in total. While three

o them are accepted, two o them were rejected. According to the

This studyChang and Yeh [2001]

Taiwan

Surovitskikh and Lubbe [2008]

South Africa

Pakdil and Aydn [2007]Turkey

Gilbert and Wong

Hong Kong

Dimensions

Ground Handilng

mageStaff

Inight servicesE-Commerce

Empathy

On-board comfort

Airline employees

Reliability of service

Convenience of service

Handling of abnormal

conditions

Consistency of service

Reliability of service

Augmented products

Employees

Tangibles

Responsiveness

Reliability and assurance

Flight patternsAvailability

Image

Empathy

Employees

FacilitiesCustomization

Flight patternsAssurance

Reliability

Responsiveness

Number of questionnaires

ditributed9000 390 Not mentioned 1000 1216

Number of surveys

available1110 354 410 385 365

Reliability .964 No measurement >.7 .93 >.7

The most important

dimension/property

Choices for

catering and

taste of food

Reliability of serviceNo measurement Past experiences Assurance

Main difference from

previous studies

Skytrax based

and all customer

expectationns

were accepted

as 5

Approach that simplify

comparison of fuzzy sets

Airway based separation of

customer expectation and

perception

Weighted SERVQUAL

method-

Scale 5 scale likert 11 scale likert 7 scale likert 5 scale likert 8 scale likert

Restrictions - -Normality of the data and the

scale used for rating

Gender proportion and

nationality distribution are

not broadly symmetrical,

small sample size, one

airline

Normalisation of the data,

used scale, level of meet

the requirement

Recommendations for

future studies

This survey must

be repeated with

Turkish Airlines

- -

Nationality and gender

distibutions must be equal,

survey must be applied on

various airline rms

Number of ethnic group

must be increased

Table 10: Comparison with existing studies.

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results o hypothesis tests, people who preer generally other airlinecompanies has lower satisaction about provision or the are thanpeople who preer generally urkish Airlines companies.

Tere is a significant difference between men and womenpassengers about adequacy o in-flight entertainment programs.Basedon this result, it is recommended that the variety o the programs mustbe increased according to male and emale preerences. When flightentertainment programs are selected, special programs or womenmust also be preerred. Tis will make a positive effect on enhancingthe satisaction o the women passengers. Decoration, home design,cooking programs can be given as examples. However, there is nodifference by gender in ood preerence and satisaction. Another resultshows that customer satisaction does not differ by the purpose o theflight.

Satisaction o the oreign passengers is lower than nationalpassengers on newspapers and magazines distributed during theflight. According to this result, urkish Airlines must re-review thenewspaper and magazine preerences. Related with this, the range olanguages must be extended by bringing a new approach, instead oonly English and urkish language publications. For example someadditional publications in languages like French and Japanese mustbe added so that the dissatisaction in this matter can be cleared up.In particular, some publications in the language o the destinationcountry will increase the satisaction.

Since the data and the findings o this study were gathered rompassengers hal o whom were domestic and the other hal international,it may provide valuable insight to all other airline companiesworldwide. Te voice o the customer should be taken into the designprocess using advanced techniques, such as experimental design,

quality unction deployment, and value engineering. Afer deliveringthe services, service providers should monitor how well the customersexpectations have been met (Pakdil and Aydn, 2007). Based on this, inurther research, a similar study can be carried out afer improvementsbased on the findings o this study to show the progress made.

Acknowledgements

We should thank TUBITAK for supporting this study. Furthermore, we owethanks to Dr. Zeliha AKCA for their valuable comments and advice, Mr. Tumer

ALTAS for his proofreading and the anonymous referees for their valuable help.

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