Determining important attributes for assessing the attractiveness of airlines

Abstract

The attractiveness of airlines is a topic of great interest to researchers and professionals wishing to understand the ability of airlines to attract and satisfy air passengers. However, there is a lack of consensus on which attributes of the airline are important for attracting and satisfying passengers. In general, previous studies have mostly focused on a limited number of attributes affecting a passenger's choice of airline, satisfaction, behaviour and loyalty. This study aims to develop a model to measure the importance of airline attributes, a model which could be adopted by future research on airline attractiveness. Besides a review of previous empirical research on the topic, an empirical study was conducted among air passengers at a major international airport in Spain. Results revealed the existence of eight categories of attributes that are important for airline passengers. The most important categories were: ‘safety and punctuality’, ‘ticket price’, and ‘attention and service during the customer journey’. In addition, air travel frequency and socio-demographic characteristics affected the perceived importance of the categories of attributes. For instance, air travel frequency had a positive influence on the importance passengers attach to ‘safety and punctuality’, ‘flight schedule and connections’, and ‘in-flight space’.