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INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH IN BUSINESS
COPY RIGHT © 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 335
JANUARY 2014
VOL 5, NO 9
Customer Services in Saudi Arabian Airlines: A Case Study of Jazan
Province
Dr. Ali. Mohammad AL-Medabesh
Assistant Professor and Dean
Community College, Jazan University
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Dr. Mohammed Maqsood Ali (Corresponding Author)
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Marketing
Community College, Jazan University
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
ABSTRACT
Customers travel by airlines that provide better services. Customer services are an important
part of a flight reservation, boarding, food & beverages, in-flight entertainment and cabin
crew’s job. The aim of this study is to evaluate experiences of vacation travellers as well as
investigates their levels of satisfaction towards Saudi airline’s services. The scope of this
study consists of teaching staff working under Jazan University, Jazan province, Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia. The data were collected by administering a structured questionnaire which was
put at the front of seats monitor of Saudi Aircraft. The findings of this study revealed that
customers are satisfied with the reservation, boarding, cabin crew, food & beverages, and in-
flight entertainment services. This study benefits to the managers of airlines industries to
prepare strategies for delighting passengers towards various services.
Keywords: Reservation, Boarding, Cabin Crew, Food & Beverages, In-flight Entertainment
1. INTRODUCTION
There is a fierce competition among airlines. Customer service is considered as the most
important part of services offered by airlines. Hynes and Dredge (1998) defined customer
services as “the way in which an organisation handles the interaction between itself and its
customers.” Srinivasan (2004) stated service quality as an attitude formed by a long-term
overall evaluation of a firm’s performance. Excellent customer services can be achieved by
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training employees, even those who do not have direct contact with customers. The service
encounters are extremely important because they are directly in contact with the customers
face to face. The interaction between customers and employees is referred as Service
Encounter (Brink and Berndt, 2008). Pakdil and Aydin (2007) emphasised the understanding
of customers’ needs and expectations.
Chang and Chen (2012) examined the perceptions and satisfaction with air transportation
services of elderly air passengers at Taiwan Taiyuan international Airport and found that the
performance of service attributes such as meals, information announcements and on-board
rest rooms do not meet the respondents’ expectations. Quality service means providing the
right level of service to meet customer needs (Hynes and Dredge, 1998).
Chou et al. (2011) carried out airline service quality evaluation using the weighted
SERVQUAL method in a Taiwanese airline case and found that reliability and assurance are
the first important dimensions, responsiveness is the second and empathy is the third followed
by tangibles and flight pattern. Furthermore, dimensions of services include safety, customer
complaint handling, courtesy of crew, on-time departure and arrival, comfort and cleanliness
of seat. Timeliness, flexibility, friendliness, honesty, expectations, quality, problems, values
are ingredients of customer services (Hynes and Dredge, 1998). In a similar study, Pakdil and
Aydin (2007) measure airline service quality based on data collected at a Turkish airline using
SERVQUAL scores weighted by loadings derived from factor analysis. The results show that
responsiveness is the most important while availability is the least important element of
quality. In addition, passengers’ educational level is an important variable affecting their
expectations and perceptions.
Forgas et al. (2010) identifies the antecedents of airline user loyalty and found that the
principal antecedent of co-native loyalty is effective loyalty. Satisfaction and trust are
effective loyalty that guarantees the success of relationship between the airlines and its users.
He emphasised the importance of emotional value that airlines may need to take all
interactions between the customer and company’s’ contact personnel and equipment. Jager et
al. (2012) carried out a study on emerging service factors such as cabin service scape,
timeliness of flight, country of origin of airline, convenience of booking, cabin service scape,
special offers and freebies. They found that timeliness of flight, cabin crew, and convenience
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booking rated the most important dimensions of service factors. In addition, country of origin
is less important to the passengers.
Gilbert and Wong (2003) carried out a study on service quality dimensions such as reliability,
assurance, facilities, employees, flight patterns, customisation and responsiveness to compare
the differences in passengers’ expectations to the actual perceived airline service quality. The
results revealed that passengers consider assurance as the important service dimension. Jou
(2008) studied the effect of service quality and price on international airline competition and
found that safety, convenience and service quality have a major influence on the choice
decision of air passengers. Furthermore, this study suggests that passengers demand decrease
in price, increased safety, services comprehensiveness and increase in convenience. Park
(2007) investigates air passengers’ perception of service quality and found that passengers’
perceptions are significantly different across airlines, seat classes and usage frequencies.
Wang et al. (2011) determines nine evaluation criteria of service quality in the airline
companies and found that passengers are more concern with comfort, internal decoration and
services of airline companies. In addition, on-time flights, ticket prices and schedules are
important evaluation criteria. Chen and Chang (2005) pointed out that responsiveness and
assurance dimensions are more concerned to the passengers from the frontline staff of airline
companies. Yang et al. (2012) investigates relationship between service quality, airline image,
customer value and behavioural intentions for passengers to fly on low cost carriers and found
that service quality has significant positive effect on customer value, airline image and
behavioural intentions. Yeh (2012) in a study aimed at relationships among service climate,
psychological contract, work engagement and service performance. He found that relational
psychological contracts have a positive influence on work engagement while work
engagement and service climate have a positive influence on service performance.
Part et al. (2004) studied air passengers’ decision-making processes considering key variables
include service expectations, service perception, service value, passenger satisfaction, airline
image and behavioural intentions. They found that service value, passenger satisfaction and
airline image have direct effect on air passengers’ decision-making process.
Chang and Chen (2007) aimed at switching barriers and customers’ loyalty stemming from
customer relational benefits. They pointed out that social benefits and customer loyalty
influence on switching barriers. Nikbin et al. (2012) carried out an empirical study on
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customer satisfaction and switching intention and found that customer satisfaction is
negatively related to switching intention.
Airlines provide cabin safety information cards. Cabin crew demonstrate safety information
and help passengers in an emergency. Cabin crew are more important than the food and
entertainment offered by the airlines (Jager et al., 2012). Chang (2012) studied the differences
in cabin safety behavioural intentions among passengers with reduced mobility and regular
passengers in the case of an incident. He found that passengers have a positive attitude
towards cabin safety behaviour. Furthermore, he suggested that “passengers with reduced
mobility may be in a high risk factor for cabin safety.” Convenient booking and offering
booking facilities via internet are the most important dimensions of service factors (Jger et al.,
2012).
The above literature provides gaps to evaluate services of airlines industry such as
reservation, boarding, cabin crew, food & beverages and in-flight entertainment services.
Therefore, this study evaluates experiences of vacation travellers, particularly teaching staff
working under Jazan University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
2. IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY
Passengers prefer to travel by those airlines which offer better services to them. They expect
better services and seek satisfaction with not only reservation service but also boarding, cabin
crew and food & beverages services. In the era of digital, passengers expect better services of
in-flight entertainment.
All of us may agree that passenger book the tickets either from travel agents or airline offices.
They expect services like easy reservation either online or offline, less waiting time, good
response from ticketing staff and many other services. Once the ticket is purchased,
passengers board the aircraft based on the boarding pass. Boarding starts with entering the
aircraft and ends with the seating of each passenger. Cabin crew stay at the door of aircraft to
extend warm welcome to passengers and helps them to locate their seats. Passengers expect
services like ease in getting boarding pass, want to avoid long waiting queue, good response
from the check-in at counter.
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Airline companies offer food and beverages to their passengers. While few companies serve it
on payment of money in the aircraft and many companies offer it free of cost. Customers are
very keen and conscious about food and beverages provided by the airline companies. They
expect tasty food, fresh food, healthy food, variety of foods, and provide breakfast, lunch or
dinner on time.
Furthermore, Cabin crew is the backbone of the business of airlines. Passengers expect
cordial welcome from cabin crews, good response, help in locating seats and luggage, provide
blankets and cleanliness of cabin. They also expect cabin quietness, temperature on ground or
during fly and cleanliness. However, passengers expect better services such as reservation,
boarding, cabin crew, food and beverages and in-flight entertainment. Therefore, there is a
need to investigate their expectations and satisfaction levels with all the services.
3. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The following are the objectives of this study.
1 To measure experiences of vacation travellers towards reservation, boarding, cabin crew,
food & beverages and in-flight entertainment services.
2 To investigate satisfaction levels of vacation travellers towards reservation, boarding,
cabin crew, food & beverages and in-flight entertainment services.
3 To examine relationship between number of trips and satisfaction levels with reservation,
boarding, cabin crew, food & beverages and in-flight entertainment services.
4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The present study is an attempt to examine services that are expected by the passengers of
Saudi airlines. Vacation travellers, particularly teaching staff working under Jazan University,
were approached for eliciting information. Convenient sampling technique has been adopted.
Out of 125 questionnaires, 100 questionnaires were collected. The response rate was 80 per
cents. A structured questionnaire that is put at the front section of Saudi aircraft was
distributed among the vacation travellers. Slight modifications in the wording of scale item
were made to make the questionnaire understandable to the surveyed respondents. All the
scale items were obtained on a 5 point Likert scale ranging from (5) for “Excellent”, to (1) for
“Very Poor” and (5) for "Very Satisfied” and (1) for “Very Dissatisfied".
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A questionnaire consists of seven sections. Section 1 includes questions relating to flight type,
class and travel partners and number of trips. Questions relating to reservation services are put
in section 2 while questions with regard to boarding and cabin crew services are in section 3
and 4 respectively. Section 5 and 6 includes questions relating to food & beverages and in-
flight entertainment. Finally, section 7 includes questions of demographic profile of
respondents such as gender, age, income, qualification and marital status.
Since the data is descriptive in nature, chi-square test has been applied to test an association
between demographic profiles of respondents with the services offer by Saudi Arabian
Airlines. Furthermore, Spearman's Coefficient Correlation is calculated to know any
relationship for closely related questions in the questionnaire. In addition, arithmetic mean
and standard deviation is calculated to examine which services passengers are satisfied and
ranked the highest. The SPSS 17.0 (Software Packages for Social Sciences) software is used
to apply Chi-square and Spearman’s Coefficient Correlation tests.
5. RESULTS AND DISCUSIONS
The data were analysed by using SPSS 17.0 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences)
software. Chi-square test is used to examine an association between demographic profile of
respondents and their satisfaction levels with reservation, boarding, cabin crew, food &
beverages and in-flight entertainment. Spearman's’ Coefficient Correlation is also calculation
for the variables that are closely related to each other in the questionnaire. Furthermore,
frequency distribution tables and cross tabulation is prepared to analyse the data. The results
of the study are discussed in this section.
5.1 Demographic Analysis
Table I reveals the demographic profiles of sample respondents. Out of 100 vacation
travellers, 67% are male and 33% are female. Majority of vacation travellers are in the age
group of 31 to 40 years, followed by 21-30 years and few are in the age group of 41-50 years
and 51- 60 years. Income of 38 travellers is between 6001 to 8000 SAR while 26 travellers’
income is between 4001 and 6000. 18 travellers’ income is between 8001 and 10000 whereas
income of 14 travellers is more than 10000 SAR. Majority of travellers hold masters degree
followed by PhD and Bachelors degree. Out of 100 travellers, 90 are married and the rest are
singles.
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Table I
Respondents’ Demographic Profile
Profile Characteristics n %
Gender Male 67 67
Female 33 33
Total 100 100
Age
< 21 00 00
21-30 22 22
31-40 60 60
41-50 11 11
51-60 07 07
>60 00 00
Total 100 100
Income (Saudi
Arabian Riyals)
<4000 04 04
4001-6000 26 26
6001-8000 38 38
8001-10000 18 18
>10000 14 14
Total 100 100
Qualifications
Diploma 00 00
Bachelors 05 05
Masters 82 82
PhDs 13 13
Total 100 100
Marital Status
Single 10 10
Married 90 90
Total 100 100
5.2 Travel Companions
Passengers often travel with family members, spouse, friends and individual. A question was
asked to know with whom they travel. The results are presented in the table II below. It is
interesting to note that majority travel with family followed by individual, spouse and few
travel alone.
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Table II
Travel Partner
Characteristics Frequency Percentages
Spouse 10 10
Family 66 66
Friends 06 06
Individual 18 18
Total 100 100
5.3 Number of Trips
All of us will agree that a passenger get experience only after making number of trips. Table
III presents the result of respondents towards number of trips. It indicates that 26% of
passengers have travelled three to five times while 20% of passengers travelled less than two.
It is also noted that 19% of passengers have made trips between six and eight. Furthermore,
17% and 18% of passengers have travelled maximum number of times respectively.
Table III
Number of Trips
Characteristics Frequency Percentages
< 2 20 20
3-5 26 26
6-8 19 19
9-11 17 17
> 12 18 18
Total 100 100
5.4 Satisfaction Levels with Cabin Crew Services
The individuals who work in the passenger’s area of aircraft are known as cabin crew.
Stewardess, Flight Attendants or Air Hostess are other names of cabin crew. These positions
are mostly held by female. They provide better customer services to the passengers and
ensure that they have pleasant travelling experiences. Table IV provides satisfaction levels of
sample respondents. Chi-square test has been applied to examine demographic profiles of
respondents and their satisfaction levels towards cabin crew services.
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TABLE IV
Composition of Demographic Profile of Respondents and Satisfaction Levels towards
Cabin Crew Services
Demographic Profile Satisfaction Levels Total Chi-
Square
Value
df Asymp.
Sig. VS S UN DS VD
Gender Male 05 42 08 10 02 67
4.811
4
0.307 Female 07 15 05 05 01 33
Total 12 57 13 15 03 100
Age
< 21 00 00 00 00 00 00
9.180
12
0.688
21-30 05 12 02 03 03 25
31-40 05 35 09 08 00 57
41-50 02 05 02 02 00 11
51-60 00 05 00 02 00 07
>60 00 00 00 00 00 00
Total 12 57 13 15 03 100
Income
<4000 01 01 02 00 00 04
16.76
16
0.401
4001-6000 05 13 01 06 01 26
6001-8000 04 23 03 06 02 38
8001-10000 01 11 04 02 00 18
>10000 01 09 03 01 00 14
Total 12 57 13 15 03 100
Qualification
Diploma 00 01 00 00 00 01
10.078
12
0.609
Bachelors 00 01 02 01 00 04
Masters 11 45 11 12 03 82
PhDs 01 10 00 02 00 13
Total 12 57 13 15 03 100
Marital
Status
Single 02 07 00 01 00 10
2.885
4
0.577 Married 10 50 13 14 03 90
Total 12 57 13 15 03 100
VD-Very Dissatisfied, DS-Dissatisfied, UN-Undecided, S-Satisfied, VS-Very Satisfied
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5.4.1 Gender and Levels of Satisfaction
Null Hypothesis: No significant difference between the gender of sample respondents and
their levels of satisfaction towards airline’s cabin crew services.
Chi-square test has been applied to find an association between the gender and levels of
satisfaction towards airline’s cabin crew services. The result indicates that chi-square value
(0.307) is greater than 0.05 at five percent level of significance for four degree of freedom and
hence the null hypothesis is accepted. Therefore, there is no association between the gender
and levels of satisfaction towards airline cabin crew services.
5.4.2 Age and Levels of Satisfaction
Null Hypothesis: No significant difference between the age of the respondents and their
levels of satisfaction towards airline’s cabin crew services.
To test the above null hypothesis, a chi-square test has been applied. It is found that calculated
value of chi-square (0.688) is greater than 0.05 at five percent level of significance for twelve
degree of freedom. It is interpreted that the null hypothesis is accepted. Therefore, there is no
association between age of sample respondents and their levels of satisfaction towards cabin
crew services.
5.4.3 Income and Levels of Satisfaction
Null Hypothesis: No significant difference between income of sample respondents and their
levels of satisfaction towards airline’s cabin crew services.
Chi-square test has been applied to find an association between income and levels of
satisfaction towards airline’s cabin crew services. The results indicate that calculated Chi-
square value (0.401) is greater than 0.05 at five percent level of significant for sixteen degree
of freedom and hence the null hypothesis is accepted. Therefore, levels of satisfaction are not
associated with income of sample respondents towards airline cabin crew services.
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5.4.4 Qualification and Levels of Satisfaction
Null Hypothesis: No significant difference between qualification of sample respondents and
their levels of satisfaction towards airline’s cabin crew services.
Chi-square test has been applied to find an association between qualification and levels of
satisfaction towards airline’s cabin crew services. The result indicates that calculated chi-
square value (0.609) is greater than 0.05 at five percent level of significance for twelve degree
of freedom and hence the null hypothesis is accepted. Therefore, levels of satisfaction are not
associated with qualification of sample respondents towards airline cabin crew services.
5.4.5 Marital Status and Levels of Satisfaction
Null Hypothesis: No significant difference between marital status of sample respondents and
their levels of satisfaction towards airline’s cabin crew services.
To test the above null hypothesis, a chi-square test has been applied. It is found that calculated
value of chi-square (0.579) is greater than 0.05 at five percent level of significance for sixteen
degree of freedom. It is interpreted that the null hypothesis is accepted. Therefore, levels of
satisfaction are not associated with marital status of sample respondents towards cabin crew
services.
5.5 Satisfaction Levels of Travellers travelling with Companions
Passengers often travel with family members, spouse, friends and individual. They may
satisfy or may not satisfy travelling with spouse, family, or friends. But it important to
measure levels of satisfaction if they travel with spouse, family or friends. Cross tabulation is
prepared to examine who are satisfied with the flight’s services.
Result of table V shows that passengers who travelled with family members are satisfied with
reservations services followed by individual, spouse and friends. It is noted that passengers
who travelled with their family members are satisfied with boarding services followed by
individual, friends and spouse.
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Table V
Levels of Satisfaction with regard to travel companions
Services Travel
Companions
Satisfaction levels Total
VS S UN DS VD
Reservation
Spouse 00 05 05 00 00 10
Family 07 38 14 07 00 66
Friends 00 04 01 01 00 06
Individual 00 12 04 02 00 18
Total 07 59 24 10 00 100
Boarding
Spouse 01 03 02 04 00 10
Family 06 44 08 07 01 66
Friends 01 03 01 00 01 06
Individual 02 11 04 01 00 18
Total 10 61 15 12 02 100
Cabin Crew
Spouse 01 05 01 03 00 10
Family 07 37 09 11 02 66
Friends 02 03 01 00 00 06
Individual 02 12 02 01 01 18
Total 12 57 13 15 03 100
Food and Beverages
Spouse 00 08 01 01 00 10
Family 04 44 09 08 01 66
Friends 01 03 00 01 01 06
Individual 01 14 01 02 00 18
Total 06 69 11 12 02 100
In-flight Entertainment
Spouse 01 05 03 01 00 10
Family 05 36 16 06 03 66
Friends 00 04 02 00 00 06
Individual 02 11 02 03 00 18
Total 08 56 23 10 03 100
VD-Very Dissatisfied, DS-Dissatisfied, UN-Undecided, S-Satisfied, VS-Very Satisfied
The researchers were interested to know who are satisfied with food & beverages services It is
revealed that passengers who travelled with family members are satisfied with food and
beverages services.
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Cabin crew are the back bone of flights. They help in locating seats and placing language of
the passengers. The researchers were interested to identify who are satisfied with cabin crew
services. It is found that family members are satisfied with cabin crew services followed by
individuals, spouse and friends. The researchers were also interested to examine the
satisfaction levels with in-flight entertainment services by passengers travelling with family
members, spouse, friends and individuals and found that family members are satisfied with
in-flight entertainment services.
Furthermore, passengers who travelled with family members are satisfied with boarding
services followed by cabin crew, reservation, food & beverages and in-flight entertainment
services. Passengers who travelled with friends are satisfied with in-flight entertainment and
reservation followed by cabin crew, boarding and food and beverages. In addition, spouses
are satisfied with food and beverages services followed by cabin crew, in-flight entertainment,
reservation and boarding services. It is also noted that individuals are satisfied with cabin
crew services on one hand. On the other hand, satisfied with food and beverages, in-flight
entertainment and boarding services.
5.6 Descriptive Statistics of Service Levels
Table VI shows the descriptive statistic of service relating to reservation, boarding and cabin
crew. The arithmetic mean and standard deviation is also calculated to measure the service
levels which the passengers mostly rated. The range of arithmetic mean and standard
deviation is between 2.98 and 3.67. The higher mean indicates that the services of reservation,
boarding and cabin crew are excellent while lower mean shows the services are very poor. It
is noted that cleanliness service is the excellent while rest room cleanliness is ranked last.
However, cabin temperature during flight is ranked second followed by cabin temperature on
ground. The result also indicates that cabin crew who are the back bone of service is ranked
fourth. Furthermore, behaviour and efficiency of ticketing staff is average while obtaining
boarding pass is easy and services at check-in counter is not efficient.
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Table VI
Descriptive Statistics of Service Levels
Services Levels of Services MEAN S.D
VP P A G E
TICKETING STAFF ATTITUDE
Efficiency of Ticketing staff 05 13 46 22 14 3.27 1.024
Behaviour of Ticketing staff 03 11 46 28 12 3.35 0.936
BOARDING SERVICES
Ease of obtaining boarding pass 07 14 39 26 14 3.26 1.088
Efficiency of Check-in at the Counter 06 22 39 22 11 3.10 1.059
CABIN CREW SERVICES
Cordial welcome by in-flight crew 07 18 27 24 24 3.40 1.231
Efficiency of in-flight service crew 07 17 39 19 18 3.24 1.147
Attitude of in-flight services crew 05 18 35 25 17 3.31 1.107
Cabin Cleanliness 02 11 25 42 20 3.67 0.985
Cabin Quietness 05 17 35 32 11 3.27 1.033
Cabin Temperature on Ground 04 12 29 37 18 3.53 1.049
Cabin Temperature during flight 04 11 25 41 19 3.60 1.044
Seat are comfort 08 11 46 18 17 3.25 1.114
Provide pillows and Blankets 08 17 33 26 16 3.25 1.158
Sky Sales on Board 04 22 33 28 13 3.24 1.065
Rest room Cleanliness 10 24 34 22 10 2.98 1.128
E-Excellent, G-Good, A-Average, P-Poor, VP-Very Poor
5.7 Satisfaction Levels with Number of Trips
Table VIII indicates that passengers who travelled between one and five times are satisfied. It
is interesting to note that passengers who make more trips are less satisfied than passengers
who travelled between one and five times. Passengers who travelled less number of times are
satisfied with reservation services as well as boarding services compared to passengers who
travelled more number of times and very few are dissatisfied.
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Table VII
Levels of Satisfaction and Number of Trips
Services No. of Trips Satisfaction Levels Total
VS S UN DS VD
Reservation
<2 00 14 02 04 00 20
3-5 02 16 07 01 00 26
6-8 03 09 05 02 00 19
9-11 01 12 04 00 00 17
>12 01 08 06 03 00 18
Total 07 59 24 10 00 100
Boarding
<2 01 15 02 02 00 20
3-5 03 19 03 01 00 26
6-8 02 08 04 04 01 19
9-11 02 06 04 04 01 17
>12 02 13 02 01 00 18
Total 10 61 15 12 02 100
Cabin Crew
<2 04 10 01 05 00 20
3-5 02 17 04 02 01 26
6-8 01 10 04 04 00 19
9-11 03 09 02 03 00 17
>12 02 11 02 01 02 18
Total 12 57 13 15 03 100
Food and
Beverages
<2 03 15 00 02 00 20
3-5 01 17 04 04 00 26
6-8 01 13 04 01 00 19
9-11 00 13 02 01 01 17
>12 01 11 01 04 01 18
Total 06 69 11 12 02 100
In-flight
Entertainment
<2 01 11 02 05 01 20
3-5 03 15 06 01 01 26
6-8 01 11 05 02 00 19
9-11 01 10 05 01 00 17
>12 02 09 05 01 01 18
Total 08 56 23 10 03 100
VD-Very Dissatisfied, DS-Dissatisfied, UN-Undecided, S-Satisfied, VS-Very Satisfied
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5.8 Correlation Analysis
The data is measured by Spearman Coefficient of Correlation because the data is non-
parametric and some questions are closely related with other questions in the questionnaire.
SPSS 17.0 was used to find the relationship between two questions.
5.8.1 Correlation between Ticketing and Check-In Staff Efficiency
The results of Table VIII reveal that there is a strong positive relationship between efficiency
of ticketing staff and check-in at counter staff. It is interesting to note that passengers who are
satisfied with ticketing staff are also satisfied with check-in at counter staff.
Table VIII
Correlation between ticketing and check-in staff efficiency
Correlation (1) (2)
Spearman’s rho
(1) Correlation Coefficient 1.000 0.306**
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.002
N 100 100
(2) Correlation Coefficient 0.306** 1.000
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.002
N 100 100
(1) Efficiency of Ticketing Staff (2) Efficiency of Check-in at counter
**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)
5.8.2 Correlation between Efficiency of Ticketing Staff and Cabin Crew
Spearman Coefficient correlation was applied to test whether there is a relationship between
the efficiency of ticketing staff and cabin crew. The results in the table IX show that there is a
relationship between them. It is interpreted that passengers, who are satisfied with ticketing
staff services, are also satisfied with cabin crew services.
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Table IX
Correlation between ticketing and cabin crew efficiency
Correlation (1) (2)
Spearman’s rho
(1) Correlation Coefficient 1.000 0.253*
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.011
N 100 100
(2) Correlation Coefficient 0.253* 1.000
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.011
N 100 100
(1) Efficiency of Ticketing Staff (2) Efficiency of Cabin Crew
*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)
5.8.3 Correlation between Cabin Crew and Check-In Staff Efficiency
Table X indicates that the correlation is not significant which means passengers who are
satisfied with cabin crew services do not expect better services from check-in at counter. The
correlation was calculated with the help of SPSS 17.0 to study whether there is a relationship
between the services of cabin crew and check-in at counter.
Table X
Correlation between cabin crew and check-in staff efficiency
Correlation (1) (2)
Spearman’s rho
(1) Correlation Coefficient 1 0.196
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.051
N 100 100
(2) Correlation Coefficient 0.196 1
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.051
N 100 100
(1) Efficiency of Cabin Crew (2) Efficiency at check-in Counter
Correlation is not significant
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5.8.4 Correlation between Ticketing and Cabin Crew Behaviour
The variables behaviour of ticketing staff and cabin crew are found closely related and hence
Spearman's Coefficient of Correlation is applied to test whether is an association or not. The
results in the table XI shows that the correlation is significant at the 0.05 level which means
passengers are satisfied with the behaviour of ticketing staff and cabin crew.
Table XI
Correlation between ticketing and cabin crew behaviour
Correlation (1) (2)
Spearman’s rho
(1) Correlation Coefficient 1.000 0.202*
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.044
N 100 100
(2) Correlation Coefficient 0.202* 1.000
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.044
N 100 100
(1) Behaviour of Ticketing Staff (2) Behaviour of Cabin Crew
*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)
5.8.5 Correlation between Cabin Cleanliness and Rest room Cleanliness
All are agreed that passengers expect both cabin and rest room cleanliness. To find out any
relationship between these two variable, Spearman's coefficient correlation is applied and the
result is presented in the table XII. It is interesting to note that correlation is significant at 0.01
levels which means passengers who are satisfied with cabin cleanliness are also satisfied with
rest room cleanliness.
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Table XII
Correlation between cabins and rest room cleanliness
Correlation (1) (2)
Spearman’s rho
(1) Correlation Coefficient 1.000 0.414**
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000
N 100 100
(2) Correlation Coefficient 0.414** 1.000
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000
N 100 100
(1) Cabin cleanliness (2) Rest room Cleanliness
**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)
5.9 Satisfaction Levels with Various Services
Table XIII shows the result of descriptive statistics of satisfaction levels with reservation,
boarding, cabin crew, food & beverages and in-flight entertainment services. The arithmetic
mean and standard deviation of all services are in the range of 2.35 and 2.44. The range is
calculated to know which service satisfied the passengers. The result indicates that passengers
are satisfied with all the services. In-flight Entertainment is ranked first by the passengers
followed by cabin crew, reservation, boarding and food and beverages services.
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Table XIII
Descriptive Statistics of Satisfaction Levels
Services Satisfaction Levels MEAN SD
VS S UN DS VD
Reservation 07 59 24 10 00 2.37 0.761
Boarding 10 61 15 12 02 2.35 0.892
Cabin crew 12 57 13 15 03 2.40 0.985
Food and Beverages 06 69 11 12 02 2.35 0.845
In-flight Entertainment 08 56 23 10 03 2.44 0.891
VD-Very Dissatisfied, DS-Dissatisfied, UN-Undecided, S-Satisfied, VS-Very Satisfied
5.10 Conclusions
Every airlines offer various services such as reservation, boarding, cabin crew, food &
beverages and in-flight entertainment services to their passengers. This study identified the
satisfaction levels of vacation traveller, particularly teaching staff in the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia towards services of Saudi Arabian Airlines. It is found that majority of passengers are
satisfied with services mostly with cabin crew services. Furthermore, chi-square test has been
applied to measure an association between demographic profiles of respondents and levels of
satisfaction towards cabin crew services. It is found that there is no association between
gender, age, income, qualification and marital status with levels of satisfactions with cabin
crew services.
Furthermore, cross tabulation was prepared to examine levels of satisfaction from travelling
with spouse, family, friend and alone towards various services and it is found that passengers
who travelled with family members are very satisfied with boarding services followed cabin
crew, reservation, food & beverages and in-flight entertainment services. It is interesting to
note that passengers who travelled alone are satisfied with cabin crew services while spouse
are satisfied with in-flight entertainment services.
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5.11 Managerial Implications
Managers are fully aware that service is the backbone of the airline business. Better the
services are provided better the profits are obtained. They need to examine which segment
expects which services. For instants, spouse are interested in in-flight entertainment, family
members are interested in food & beverages, friends need better reservation services and
passengers who travel alone need cordial welcome from cabin staff. Aviation industry should
not only focus on satisfying passengers’ with reservation services or boarding services but
also need to focus on delighting passengers in reservation, boarding, cabin crew, food &
beverages and in-flight entertainments.
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