Service quality of low cost international airlines in India a Kerala based study

Abstract

The aviation sector in India is one of the fastest growing segments in the world. The sector has seen tremendous change as a result of privatisation initiatives and technological improvements for seamless travel with major players like IndiGo, Air India, and SpiceJet. Low-Cost Carriers increase air connectivity both in regional and international sector and it provides affordable overseas travel. The improvement of service quality is the main step that should be taken by the Indian LCCs to retain in the highly competitive international air travel market. Indian LCCs offering international services should frequently measure the service quality in order to identify the areas for improvement. The primary aim of the study is to evaluate the service quality of Low-Cost International Airlines in India. It also assesses the satisfaction level of international passengers of LCCs and the various problems faced by them during their air travel. The research work is both descriptive and analytical in nature. The primary data were collected based on a pretested structured questionnaire. The data were collected from the international passengers travelling from and to three international airports in Kerala namely Thiruvananthapuram, Cochin and Calicut. The international passengers of Air India Express, IndiGo and SpiceJet were selected as samples. Purposive sampling method was used to select the sample. A sample size of 405 passengers was taken for the analysis and SSQAI model was used in the study to measure the service quality. The study found that the interaction quality and physical environment quality of Low-Cost International Airlines are good and outcome quality and the access quality of Low -Cost International Airlines are only at moderate level. The results indicate that passengers have good level of satisfaction on assurance and empathy and there is average level of satisfaction on tangibles, reliability and responsiveness. The level of passenger satisfaction is average in case of the overall experience from the airlines. It is found that the passenger problems of Low-Cost International Airlines are big in case of Ticketing & Flight Fare, Flight and Check-In & Boarding. But,moderate level of passenger problems persists in case of In-Flight Services and Baggage. The study revealed that all dimensions of service quality have a positive impact on the passenger satisfaction and all passenger problem factors have a negative impact on both service quality and passenger satisfaction. Frequent rescheduling and cancelation of flights, unreasonable increase in airfare, poor quality meals provided in the cabin, lack of refreshments during long delay etc. are the main areas where the airline companies should take necessary steps for the improvement of service quality of Low-Cost International Airlines.