Airline Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality

This assignment investigates the impact of service quality on customer satisfaction and loyalty within the UAE-based airline industry. It examines various factors contributing to customer satisfaction, such as flight experience, airport services, and staff interaction. Drawing upon relevant academic literature and empirical research, the study analyzes the relationship between service quality dimensions and customer satisfaction, ultimately exploring how airlines can enhance service quality to improve customer loyalty in a competitive market.

Research project on customer
satisfaction in airline industry
1

Table of Contents
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Research project outline specification...................................................................................3
1.2 Factors that contribute to the process....................................................................................3
1.3 Key references about ‘customer satisfaction ‘ and ‘influential factors on customer
satisfaction’..................................................................................................................................4
1.4 Research project specification...............................................................................................6
1.5 For the agree research specification an appropriate plan and procedure...............................7
TASK-2............................................................................................................................................8
2.1 Matching of the resources......................................................................................................8
2.2 The proposed research investigation.....................................................................................9
2.3 The required data...................................................................................................................9
TASK-3..........................................................................................................................................11
3.1 Use of research evaluation technique..................................................................................11
3.2 Interpretation of the results..................................................................................................12
3.3 Recommendations................................................................................................................22
TASK – 4 : POSTER.....................................................................................................................22
Recommendation...........................................................................................................................22
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................23
REFRENCES.................................................................................................................................24
2

TASK 1
1.1 Research project outline specification
Title- “Customer-satisfaction in the airline industry – A case study of Easy jet”
Introduction and background- At both domestic and international level Easy jet operates. It is a
British low-cost airlines (Koklic,Kukar-Kinney and Vegelj, 2017). With a low-cost flight this
airline provides the customers. The opportunity to the low cost group to travel internally is given
by this airline. The industry is still facing problems related to customer satisfaction in spite of the
rendering low-cost service. This research project is being done in order find out the issues that is
related to customer satisfaction in spite of providing low-cost service. The satisfaction among
customers will be there if the products and services will be provided as per their requirements
and expectations. To the success of any business the customers are key elements. To the business
the customer satisfaction is essential as through the opportunity to the market and owner of the
businesses is given in order to expand their business in the long run. The problems can be faced
with the low-cost as it might be possible that level of services that is given by this airline is not
effective. They might be able to attract more number of customers but here might be fall in the
repetition of the customers.
Aim- “To study the issues which is faced by easy jet airways in order to generate satisfaction
among customers”
Objective
 To identify the factors which can lead to more customer satisfaction
 To analyse the impact of low-cost over the performance of Easy jet
 To provide recommendation for this airline to generate satisfaction among custoemrs
 To draw an effective result of the research that is conducted
1.2 Factors that contribute to the process
There are various factors that can add to the process of selection of research on customer
satisfaction. They are as follows-:
 In order to fulfil the requirements of the customers the product need to be developed
 Any query or complain of the customers need to be handled effectively
 To meet out the need of customer the existing product is required to be changed
 In the current functioning of the business the problem need to be identified
 To conduct the business efficiently(Migacz, Zou and Petrick, 2018) .
3

 The response of the customer on the product
In this research the structured model is used.
Interest- I was interested in this topic as this topic is in current trend and also the various factors
way can be found out with the help of this topic to generate customer-satisfaction among
customers.
Research scope and it's importance- As it performs over the level of customer satisfaction so the
scope of this research is wide enough. The Easy jet is offering low-cost services to their
respective customers and for his purpose they are making use of different methods such as
smaller and secondary airports in order to serve their customers. It is essential to find out
whether this airline is rending adequate serves to its customers against the low cost or not. It's
importance is that in order to complete this research the necessary information will be provided.
Available resources – In the adequate quantity the required resources are available that aid in
conducting this research. With the help of questionnaire that will be filled by the customers the
information will be collected. The time will be saved from this as in the effective way it will be
analysed and to perform this not much finance will be required.
Primary data– In context to the customer satisfaction there are effective amounts of study
material that is available which can help in processing the research study in the effective way.
The research study is processed with the use of daata gathered in the primary data collection in
the adequate manner as through this will help in getting the answers for the research questions
and objectives
Feedback – In order to get an adequate set of information and knowledge from various sources
feedback is an effective form. To collect the set of information about the services given by this
airline this can considered as an effective tool.
Knowledge and expertise knowledge -This will be useful to find gain more insight on the
research topic and will develop interest in it.
1.3 Key references about ‘customer satisfaction ‘ and ‘influential factors on customer
satisfaction’
As per Yoon and You, (2016), now-a days airline industry is the most competitive
industry. The customer-satisfaction becomes a vital need in this industry as this is the only factor
that will aid them in getting revenues and market share. The customers will be satisfied with this
4

industry if all the expectation and requirements regarding the product or services that are being
fulfilled.
In order to gain insight way of understanding the requirements of the customers the Kano model
is useful. This model will help the airline industry to think about how the products and services
can be related to the needs of the customer. The three types of attributes to the products and
services is being planned by this model
Threshold attribute – The basic features that the customers expect from a product or service to
have. For an example when the customer book the airline ticket, the customers have some
expectation regarding the product and services which is offered by this airline.
Performance attributes- These are not necessary but with these elements the enjoyment of the
customers regarding product or service will be more.
Exciting attributes – The products competitive edge will be boost up with this element. The
customers are not aware about these product features but they are delighted when they find them.
For an instance the customers can be given some special biscuit during their travel. This will
develop a level of satisfaction among the customers that are travelling.
5

By using the concept of the satisfaction of customers the company can satisfy the needs of
the existing customers through their existing services. In order to recognize the needs of the
customers many companies conduct survey and in its current level of the activity the appropriate
change is done to satisfy those needs. In the long run customer satisfaction helps the
development of business (Customer satisfaction in airline industry , 2017). The quality of the
services is one of the factors that affect the customers. It is also being provided by the easy jet to
its customers and in relation to the price paid for the produces the value of the service. On time
all the services need to be provided to the customers. On the convenience the organization should
focus that is being received by the customers while making use of the service of the company.
6
Illustration 1: Kano Model Analysis
(Source:Kano Model Analysis , 2017.)

For the purpose of the customer dissatisfaction the various factors need to be reviewed. They are
as follows-:
Easy of conducting survey – In conducting the survey there will no complexity that will be faced
by the student as the availability of the student for conducting the survey is easy. If the
complexity activity is involved in the research then it would be hard to conduct business and the
needs will not be fulfilled from the benefit arrived from it (Saleem and Raja, 2014).
Scope- Within the research is to be done the management should decide the scope .The customer
base of the airline industry easy jet is very large and a huge cost and complexity will be there in
order to conduct research on the entire customers. For the purpose of conducting the survey the
student is being selected by the management and on the basis of it decision will be made. After
considering that whether it would help in attaining the desired results the scope would be
decided.
7

Time -After considering the time that is required for the research must be done. While making
use of the services of the easy jet the research involves asking the students the problem that is
faced by them. Within the time that is being allocated for the project the survey need to be done,
Risk factor – In conducting a research program here is a lot of risk. It will affect the total
performance of the business if the outcomes of the research are not positive. To the company it
will cause a huge failure of resources if the data collection methods that are used for conducting
the survey are not proper (Yoon and You, 2016).
8

Cost benefit analysis – The cost is involved in almost all the research. In order to ascertain the
cost that is involved with the project the management should do the cost benefit analyse.
1.4 Research project specification
In order to examine the factors that are causing the dissatisfaction of customer of the easy
jet airways the research is being conducted. With the students this research is being conducted to
get the viewpoint of the customers on the problem which is face by them when they travel with
easy jet airways. The factors that causes the dissatisfaction among the customers is included in
the research plan. With the service of the company the reason why the customer feel dissatisfied
will be analysed. The measures will also be developed in order to achieve the customer
satisfaction. The measures need to be implemented by the company and analyse the performance
of those measures. These following things are mainly included in the research plan.
Research methodology – The methodology to gather data and research at the conclusion is
included in this (Swaminathan and Thomaz, 2014). In order to gather the data the method that is
used by the managements is included in the research methodology and also while conducting the
research the sampling or other technique used is also included .In this research the approach that
is used to conduct the research is a mixed approach as both qualitative and quantitative approach
is used in order to conduct the research.
Research design – While conducting the research for easy jet airways a set of instruction that
needs to be followed is included in the research design. The method used for gathering the data
is included in the information that is given by the research design and also the assumption that is
followed while conducting the research is also included in it (Ong, Nguyen and Syed Alwi,
2017).
Research strategy – The way the research is going to be conducted is shown in the business
strategy. By determining the research first the research is conducted and by the data collection
and data anlayzation by using various tools the objective is being reached. The tables, graphs,
charts etc are tools which is used to analyse the data.
Research choice – As per the requirement of the project the choice of methods that is used for
conducting research is included in the research choice. The mixed approach that consists of both
qualitative and quantitative research is used for this research.
Data collection – From both the primary and secondary source the data can be gathered for the
purpose of conducting the research. For conducting the research the primary sources are the
9

sources in which the fresh data is gathered. For the purpose of gathering data the interview,
questionnaires and conducting survey are some sources of primary data collection. From the
existing sources such as articles journals and internet the secondary sources' data can be gathered
for the purpose of conducting research. For the purpose of conducting research in customer
satisfaction the primary sources of data such as questioners and interview will help in the
collection of data set of information which can recognize the problem that is faced by the
customer while making use of the service of the company will be included in the survey. In order
to analyze the factors that affect business of airlines the secondary data such as books, journals
and articles can be used for the purpose.
Data sampling – When the quantity of data is very high then the method of sampling is used. In
order to represent the complete data the sample need to be selected. The while population need to
be presented by the sample which is chosen. In order to draw a valid conclusion over it the
sample need to be analysed.
Ethical consideration – From the password the data that is gathered for the purpose of the survey
need to be protected in order to increase the security (Khan and Khan, 2014).
Finding and recommendation - From the analyzation of data the result need to be found
which is a final step and the conclusion that can be drawn from the research(Mohamad and
Azam, 2017).
1.5 For the agree research specification an appropriate plan and procedure
Action Date of start Duration Finish date Explanation
Project planning 1st November
2018
30 days 1st December
2019
During this period
the plan to
conduct the
research is made.
Gathering of data 1st December
2019
20 days 21st December
2018
The data is
gathered from
both primary and
secondary source
for the purpose of
conducting the
research.
10

Evaluation of
data
21st December
2018
40 days 11th January 2019 During this period
the collected data
is analysed
Recommendation 11th January 2019 30 days 11th February
2019
During this period
the final result of
this research is
found and at the
end of the
research the
recommendation
is provided.
TASK-2
2.1 Matching of the resources
Research questions
 What are the recommendation that can be given to generate more customer-satisfaction
 What is the impact on the quality of services due to low cost of easy jet airlines?
 Is low cost is sufficient to increase the customer satisfaction?
 What are the factors that lead to satisfaction among customers?
The various resource such as book, Internet, journal article, time, money, respondent etc
are being used in order to carry out proper and effective research. The human, financial resources
etc are being used for this research. The human resources was used in order to gather data from
respondents. The financial resources was also being used in order pay salary to the researcher.
Also, the recorded data was gathered with the help of scholar software and the various sources
such as internet, books etc were also used.
In order to conduct this research the data can be collected from both primary and
secondary sources. Through the questionnaires, Interview, article and journals etc the data can be
collected.
Null hypothesis- While booking the tickets the customer think that easy jet airways ticket is
always not available (Hussain, Al Nasser and Hussain, 2015).The company is not able to provide
11

the service as per the price paid by the customer. The increase in the number of customers is no
handled effectively by the company. In order to meet the demands of the customer the current
capacity of the company is not enough. The customer queries is not handled properly by the
staff.
Hypothesis and assumption – Among the customers the question for studying and analyze the
factors that causes dissatisfaction can be as follows-:
 By the company the additional facility that the customer want to be added by the company
to the existing product is not provided.
 With the availability of the ticket the problem is faced by the customer
 The queries of the customers is not handled by the staff
 The behaviour of the staff is not good
All the factors that are affecting the customer need to be included by the researcher and in
order to handle needs of the customers the appropriate measures need to be taken. In the airline
industry the most important factors are service, price and quality so it is managed effectively by
the company in order to achieve customer satisfaction. For the company these questions will help
in managing the quality of the service effectively.
2.2 The proposed research investigation
Questionnaires
1. Gender
 Male
 Female
2. Age
 16-21
 21-25
3.The number of time you travel in a year?
 1 time
 2 times
 3 times
 More than 3 times
4.Do agree that there is problem with the availability of the tickets
 Strongly agree
12

 Agree
 Neither agree nor disagree
 Disagree
 Strongly disagree
5. Do agree that while travelling the quality of service is not good
 Strongly agree
 Agree
 Neither agree nor disagree
 Disagree
 Strongly disagree
6. Do you think that due to delay in flight the problem is faced by the customers
 Yes
 No
 Neither yes nor no
7. Do you agree that in this airline the behaviour of staff is not proper
 Strongly agree
 Agree
 Neither agree nor disagree
 Disagree
 Strongly disagree
8. Do you think that queries of the customers are not handled effectively in easy jet airway
 Yes
 No
 Neither yes or no
9. Do you agree that quality of food is not good in this airline
 Strongly agree
 Agree
13

 Neither agree nor disagree
 Disagree
 Strongly disagree
10 Do you agree that as per the cost the serve is not given by easy jet
 Strongly agree
 Agree
 Neither agree nor disagree
 Disagree
 Strongly disagree
The use of both primary and secondary data is needed for conducting the research investigation.
In order to draw a valid conclusion over it the data that is gathered from various sources is then
analyzed.
Primary data – The fresh data is being collected in the primary data collection. The information
can be gathered by conducting the questionnaire and interview from the students and on the basis
of it the decision can be made. A set of questions need to be there in the questionnaire that is to
be asked to students to gather the information on the issue that is faced by them when they are
making use of the service of the easy jet. By interviewing the student also the information can be
gathered and on the problem that is faced by the students while making use of the services the
information can be obtained. A set of question need to be prepared for this set and among the
student it needs to be distributed to gather the data for conducting the research (Haumann and
Rese, 2014).
Secondary data – The articles, journals, internet etc are some sources of the secondary data. The
data that is used by other organization will be used by the researcher while encouraging the
similar organization situation. The information will be gathered by the researcher that is needed
to be conducted research to find a reason for customer dissatisfaction. A set of questions is being
prepared for this purpose and for the questions from the secondary sources the data is being
collected in order to draw an effective conclusion over the research.
2.3 The required data
From the primary and secondary data the researcher has collected the required data by
making use of various tools. Over the research the conclusion is being drawn by the researcher.
14

The various stages have being gone by the researcher in the research project in order to study the
project and to bring out result and findings.
TASK-3
3.1 Use of research evaluation technique
By the researcher the following evaluation technique can be used. They are as follows-:
Systematic peer reviews- In the peer review the evaluation of one or more people of same
experience to the product of work are involved (Hapsari, Clemes and Dean, 2017). The
comparisons of the activity in between the organization that are operating at the same level are
required. In order to improve the quality and improve the performance it is conducted .The
comparison can be done in between easy jet and Ryan air in this project for the evaluation of the
research. A lot of time is required in order to conduct the peer review.
Survey and consultations – By conducting a survey with the customer or by consulting the expert
to reach the outcome the technique involves the evaluation of the research. A set of question will
be framed by the researcher and a survey will be conducted based on it. In order to evaluate the
research there are many experts and over the research the conclusion will be drawn.
Bibliometric analysis – On the basis of the volume of the output of the project is decided and it is
a quantitative method of evaluation. On each research field it involves general comparison in
between the organization.
Case study analysis – One of the widely used measures to evaluate the research is the case study
analysis . With the similar situation which has taken place in the organization of the similar
nature the comparison is being done (Chow, 2014). For the purpose of evaluation the comparison
can be done by acquiring the data from secondary sources. On the customer satisfaction the best
way of evaluating the research is the survey and the consultations. In comparison, with other
measures the more appropriate measures is being provided as the data is gathered from the
public. The evaluation technique is used by the researcher in order to collect the information
from the students to recognize the reason which lands to dissatisfaction among customers. In
order to obtain the reason of customer dissatisfaction from the large number of people it provides
both qualitative and quantitative measures. The best solution of the problems is being provided
by the evaluation of the project which was reason for the customer dissatisfaction
15

3.2 Interpretation of the results
On the basis of the questionnaire and the interview with the students the researcher has
interpreted the analyzed results. By the use of different chart the interpretation and analyze is
done in the above table
Theme 1:Most of the participants were male
Gender Frequency
Female 24
Male 59
Total 85
Theme 2: The age of the most of the participants was between 21-25
Age Frequency
16-21 21
21-25 64
Total 85
16

Theme 3: Most of the student have being in the flight once during the year
The number of time you travel in a year Frequency
1-time 40
2-times 21
3-times 15
More than 3-times 9
Total 85
17

Theme 4: Most of the participants highly agree that there is a problem in the availability of the
tickets
Do agree that there is problem with the
availability of the tickets?
Frequency
Strongly agree 31
Agree 14
Neither agree nor disagree 17
Disagree 13
Strongly disagree 10
Total 85
18

Theme 5: Most of the student agree that quality of service is not so good in this airline
Do agree that while travelling the quality of
service is not good?
Frequency
Strongly agree 21
Agree 24
Neither agree nor disagree 19
Disagree 14
Strongly disagree 7
Total 85
19

Theme 6: Most of the students highly agree that delay in the flights the problem is faced
Do you think that due to delay in flight the
problem is faced by the customers
Frequency
Yes 45
No 10
Neither yes or no 30
Total 85
20

Theme 7 :The students disagree with that the behaviour of staff is not appropriate
Do you agree that in this airline the behaviour
of staff is not proper
Frequency
Strongly agree 11
Agree 11
Neither agree nor disagree 16
Disagree 31
Strongly disagree 16
Total 85
21

Theme 8:The most of the students highly agree that there is improper handling of queries in this
airlines
Do you think that queries of the customers are
not handled effectively in easy jet airway
Frequency
Yes 40
No 20
Neither yes or no 25
Total 85
22

Theme 9:Most of the students disagree that quality of food is not good at this airline
Do you agree that quality of food is not good
in this airline?
Frequency
Strongly agree 11
Agree 19
Neither agree nor disagree 32
Disagree 13
Strongly disagree 10
Total 85
23

Theme 10:Most of the student are neutral that benefit of the service is not as per the price
Do you agree that as per the cost the serve is
not given by easy jet
Frequency
Strongly agree 11
Agree 11
Neither agree nor disagree 16
Disagree 31
Strongly disagree 16
Total 85
24

3.3 Recommendations
Findings - The findings of this research project is the main reason behind the dissatisfaction
among customers are in order to get a ticket the student is having a problem, delay in flight, the
queries are not handled properly and also the quality of the service is not so good etc. In order to
attain the customer satisfaction the company should check over these issues (Cheng and Teng,
2017). The following are the research of this project
 More than 61 % of the members are male
 In between the age group of 20-15 the more number of customers are there
 Once in a year most of the customers are using the travel and tourism
 In order to get the tickets most of the people are facing the problem
 With the quality of the food almost people are facing the problem,
 Among the customer the delay in the flight is the ground for dissatisfaction
 The customers are not much affected by the behaviour of staff towards them
 The queries of the customers is also not handled properly
 For the customer dissatisfaction the quality of food is not the reason
 For the customer dissatisfaction the price is not the problem.
TASK – 4 : POSTER
Recommendation
The low cost service is being provided by the company then also it also taken into
consideration to strategy the needs of the customer(Akamavi and Xu, 2015). The objective of
25

this research is to attain the customer satisfaction. The need of the customer can be satisfied by
the company base on the basis of the findings. The numbers of flights need to be increased u the
company so that they can handle the issue of the ticket. The efforts need to be made by the
company in order to improve the quality of the service.To control the delay of the flight the
management should make the efforts and the queries of the customer need to be handled
effectively
CONCLUSION
Thus summing up the above report it can be concluded that in order to gain the information
in context of the customer dissatisfaction this research project will help the researcher. In
gathering the data also this research helps. Related to the factors that cause customer
dissatisfaction the project has helped in getting information. The management has discovered the
various factors hat affects the customers through this research project. For the future business
planning this factor need to be taken in to consideration by the management.
26

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Akamavi, R.K. and Xu, Y., 2015. Key determinants of passenger loyalty in the low-cost airline
business. Tourism management, 46, pp.528-545.
Cheng, J.C. and Teng, H.Y., 2017. Building customer satisfaction with tour leaders: The roles of
customer trust, justice perception, and cooperation in group package tours. Asia Pacific Journal
of Tourism Research, 22(4), pp.395-407.
Chow, C.K.W., 2014. Customer satisfaction and service quality in the Chinese airline
industry. Journal of Air Transport Management, 35, pp.102-107.
Hapsari, R., Clemes, M.D. and Dean, D., 2017. The impact of service quality, customer
engagement and selected marketing constructs on airline passenger loyalty. International
Journal of Quality and Service Sciences, 9(1), pp.21-40.
Haumann, T. and Rese, M., 2014. Footprints in the sands of time: A comparative analysis of the
effectiveness of customer satisfaction and customer–company identification over time. Journal
of Marketing, 78(6), pp.78-102.
Hussain, R., Al Nasser, A. and Hussain, Y.K., 2015. Service quality and customer satisfaction of
a UAE-based airline: An empirical investigation. Journal of Air Transport Management, 42,
pp.167-175.
Khan, U. and Khan, N., 2014. Customer satisfaction in airline industry. International
Proceedings of Economics Development and Research, 76, p.63.
Koklic, M.K., Kukar-Kinney, M. and Vegelj, S., 2017. An investigation of customer satisfaction
with low-cost and full-service airline companies. Journal of Business Research, 80, pp.188-196.
Migacz, S.J., Zou, S. and Petrick, J.F., 2018. The “Terminal” Effects of Service Failure on
Airlines: Examining Service Recovery with Justice Theory. Journal of Travel Research, 57(1),
pp.83-98.
Mohamad, H.A.D. and Azam, S.F., 2017. MEASURING THE MEDIATING ROLE OF
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION BETWEEN SERVICE QUALITY AND CUSTOMER
LOYALTY IN UAE HOTEL INDUSTRY. European Journal of Management and Marketing
Studies.
27