R. BHUVANESWARAN 1 and Dr. D. VIJAYARANGAM 2

SERVICE QUALITY TOWARDS DOMESTIC AIRLINES PASSENGER

PERCEPTION IN TAMILNADU

R. BHUVANESWARAN1 AND Dr. D. VIJAYARANGAM**2

ABSTRACT

The world has turned into a global village, it has become easier for people, living in extreme corners of the world, to connect to their loved ones as well as increase their business network, without much of a hassle. thanks to the booming civil aviation industry-it has helped people travel to the nook and corners of the world, within just few hours. AS a part of this global village, India is also witnessing a steep increase in the number of passengers, traveling to and from the country, via air. the prominent international airlines have been carrying on the operation in India mainly because of the fact that they attract people in India, largely the business and leisure travelers. Domestic airline within India remained stagnant over many decades. Deep- rooted bureaucratic policies constrained any development and the state monopolized all domestic aviation decisions. However, a strengthening economy coupled with an increasing number of wealthy inhabitants has triggered change with demand for air transport outstripping capacity. In response the government grasped aviation reform following a ministerial report that provided a road map as the way forward for India’s domestic airlines policies. The voluminous orders for aircraft to further develop economic activity by loosening regulatory barriers. The survey captured the perceptions of passengers who are now travelling in this rapidly changing environment of freer and more competitive markets. India’s first low cost carrier, Air India has changed the competitive landscape within India. The survey results confirm the hypothesis that their exists two distinct markets, one comprising those passengers who choose a full service airline and the other those that select a low cost carrier.

Keywords: Service quality, Tangibility, Responsiveness, Reliability, Assurance, empathy

1Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department of Commerce, Annamalai University , Annamalainagar – 608 002, Tamil Nadu, India. E-mail:[email protected]. 2** Assistant Professor, Commerce Wing - DDE, Annamalai University , Annamalainagar – 608 002, Tamil Nadu, India 2

INTRODUCTION The world has turned into a global village, it has become easier for people, living in extreme corners of the world, to connect to their loved ones as well as increase their business network, without much of a hassle. thanks to the booming civil aviation industry-it has helped people travel to the nook and corners of the world, within just few hours. AS a part of this global village, India is also witnessing a steep increase in the number of passengers, traveling to and from the country, via air. the prominent international airlines have been carrying on the operation in India mainly because of the fact that they attract people in India, largely the business and leisure travelers.

The increase in the air passengers traffic in India has resulted in an explosion in the number of international airlines flying to the country. Some of the prominent names in the civil aviation industry, including Lufthansa, fly emirates, British airways, etc. have increased their clientele in India, thereby making the presence felt in the Asian country. Moreover, they provide world-class amenities on board, which automatically attract the passengers to use their services time and again. go through our related section to get a preview of the prominent international airlines in India.

Indian aviation industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world. till

1991,the only public airlines in India has enjoyed monopoly in it operations and businesses and therefore could dictate its own terms to it passengers who had no other choice but to accept whatever had been available IR respective of quality of service, pricing, hospitality and comfort. The scenario changed following globalization and airspace having open to competitions. Subsequent events moved very fast as more and more new players entered with lot of advantages of being new operators as compared to the airlines which had been in operations since independence and therefore accumulated lot of fat which needed to be immediately dispensed with two faced the 3 emergent competition that forced as threats to its existence and substance. on the other hand some of the private players are very much concerned about their passengers as well as some of them are implementing low price strategy to attract the passengers.

Now as passengers are playing the key role in aviation industry, on the airlines are trained to captured the lion share of the market. through most of the airlines are introducing various lucrative strategies to retain their own passengers and attract more new passengers towards them, but still brand switching is increasing day by day.

So in this cut throat competitive situation, the success of airlines are very much dependent on the passengers service provided at all levels-be before, after and during the journey to make the passengers satisfied. Now a day, passengers become very choosing about where they spend their hard-earned money. if they decided to take a trip, they want to it to be great! so the airlines needed to get with the program and look at the experience from the passengers perspective.

Deregulation of commercial airlines transportation in the India has contributed to a striking over haul in an industry that is crucially important to the American economy. Economist predicated that unregulated competition among airlines would result in lower costs and reduced fares for consumers. it was also hoped that consumers would benefit .as complicating airlines offered improved levels of service to attract demand while the skies have been somewhat bumpy for carriers particularly those unable to successfully cut costs-the most efficient airlines have been able to thrive in the to two decades since deregulation.

One concern that occupied deregulation was that scale economics in hornet in air transport might hold down entry and leave the number of airlines operating in a competitive system relatively small. If particular markets were concentrated as a result, consumers would be vulnerable to higher prices. 4

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Joyce A. Hunter (2011) the aim was to discover the results when service providers or frontline staff actually did “smile” when handling or resolving explosive customer service issues. They conclude that “Smiling customer service” builds customer loyalty, fosters profits, and helps reduce air rage. The results from this study could be used to construct training programs that support developing airline personnel in particular areas of customer service, including frontline staff, flight attendants, and security personnel. More research could be investigated to identify innovative ways to provide more exciting and interesting experiences for the more seasoned and frequent travelers who may have grown cynical about air travel but continue to rely on this mode of transportation.

Kittichai Thanasupsin, Suraphan Chaichana And Sudtida Pliankarom

(2010), he observed on travelers’ perceptions show that fare and safety concerns are most satisfied by low-cost carriers and full-service airline travelers, respectively

Based on the logit model developed, significant factors influencing mode selections are group size, fare deviation to income ratio, waiting time deviation multiplied by income, punctuality, and safety. airlines may consider offering fare promotions for selected flights, times, and occupations (such as student). They may also offer a reduced fare for group traveling. On the other hand, If LCCs are keen on increasing the number of passengers; punctuality should be the issue of concern. Although punctuality improvement of LCCs may be tedious to achieve due to its intensive use of air fleet, its achievement would significantly increase number of passengers.

Sunil Babbar and Xenophon Koufteros (2008) identified the human- or people-related factors; individual attention, helpfulness, courtesy, and promptness that shape the element of “personal touch” in the service provided by contact employees 5 and examine their role as determinants of customer satisfaction with the airline. They conclude that the individual attention, helpfulness, courtesy, and promptness embedded in the element of personal touch shape the experience of airline customers and determine their level of satisfaction with the airline. While there are certainly other determinants of customer satisfaction in the airline industry, this study identifies an important set of factors constituting the dimension of personal touch and determining customer satisfaction. Contributes to, and advances the literature on, customer contact employees and their role in shaping customer experience and satisfaction. Specifically, it provides important insights into the element of personal touch and the nature of the relationship between individual attention, helpfulness, courtesy, and promptness and the satisfaction of customers of passenger airlines.

Steyn, et al (2011) article has studied the satisfaction with airlines’ service recovery efforts was used to determine the effect of a service failure on their relationship with airlines as well as their willingness to recommend airlines to others following a service failure. The results are compared with the findings from a similar study among United States airline passengers.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Passenger satisfaction service arises when a company can provide passengers with benefits that exceed passengers expectation and this is considered value-added. If customers are satisfied with the product or service, they will buy more, and do so more often. Passenger gratification is an essential goal for each airline providing passenger services. The on board experience is still something special for the customer. The customer has a wide choice to select the suitable airline product according to their requirements. Therefore, airlines are continuously working on the in-flight and out flight service product development and innovation to differentiate themselves from competitors. During the last few years a variety of in-flight product 6 innovations have entered into the market. This includes the aircraft seat on long haul flights as an important product element which is continuously being improved and renewed according to its life cycle and changing customer requirements. The current development of business class seat roll-outs shows the significance of this product element which influences the buying decision of the passenger especially on long haul flights. If the passenger is not satisfied, due to the negative experience, the client will reconsider the buying decision for further flights and will probably switch to another airline.

This kind of situation belongs to the daily business in the passenger airline industry.

The problem statement for this article is;

1. Passenger complaints on flight problems, ticketing problems, refunds, fares,

customer services, advertising and other problems.

2. Mishandling baggage, on time performance and denied boarding’s.

3. In sufficient information is given about the delay flight.

4. Quick response to passenger needs and word-of-mouth during by flight crew.

5. Quick announcement of flight schedules and the availability of alternative

flight in case of delay or cancellation.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1. To study the service quality towards domestic airlines passenger perception in

Tamilnadu.

2. To analyse the airlines preferred and level of service quality in domestic

airlines passenger perception in Tamilnadu.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

A number of studies have conducted in service quality related theories and methods in the airline industry. Conversely, most previous airline service studies have relied mainly on passenger satisfaction and service quality to describe passenger evaluations of services and have focused on the effect of airline service quality at the 7 aggregate construct level. Although examining the effect of individual dimensions of service attributes has potentially great utility for airline managers, the effects of individual dimensions of airline service quality has not been fully investigated in previous airline service studies

METHODOLOGY

The study is based on the primary data. They have been collected through administrative interview schedule to the passengers and to the airline employees, personal observation and discussion with the passengers and employees regular visits and conservation with the airline officials have also been helped to understand the passengers and airline employees about service quality in the airline industry.

Five special areas of Parasuraman methods five dimension SERQUAL namely tangability, reliability, responsibility, assurance and empathy have been focused in the

Secondary data have been collected from the books, journal, newspapers, articles and websites mainly from the airline industry lines.

SAMPLING DESIGN

Selection of sample passengers

Selected domestic airline industry in Tamilnadu and the sample size was determined.

The 630 respondents have been selected proportionately from domestic airline industry passenger population.

Sample of domestic airline passenger

No. of sample S.No. Domestic airline Percentage customers 1 Spice Jet 160 25.40 2 Indigo 181 28.70 3 Air India 131 20.80 4 Jet Airways 158 25.10 Total 630 100.00 8

The sample passengers were selected randomly from the domestic airline industries in which the interview schedule was administered selection of sample airline employee.

Simple random sampling technique has been used to select the sample airline employee respondents for the study. Totally 630 respondents from domestic airline passenger in Tamilnadu have been identified.

FRAME WORK OF ANALYSIS

The passengers towards service qualities in domestic airline industries and

SERVQUAL method have been analysed as the third objective. The passengers have accounts in Spice Jet, Indigo, Air India, Jet Airways based on age, gender, marital status, income and other social economic status have been used as chi-square have been applied appropriately.

The various service quality measures adopted by the domestic airline passenger have been analysed by using Chi-square test have been applied to identify the results underlying five key dimension from the 10 variable given in the questionnaire.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The study undertaken is sufficiently broad in outlook and wider in coverage as regards the subject matter. All necessary care has been taken to reduce any kind of bias at all bench. Although the researcher has taken utmost efforts to minimize such errors by cross-verification in the field of study.

Since the study was limited in airline services and other state domestic airline service were not covered. 9

Airlines preferred and level of service quality in domestic airline passengers

TABLE 1 AIRLINES PREFERRED AND LEVEL OF SERVICE QUALITY IN DOMESTIC AIRLINE PASSENGERS Sl. Jet Air No Services Spice jet Indigo Airways India . Cabin crew are well dressed and neat 1 12 24 14 7 in appearance Cabin crew documents associated with services are informative and 2 18 10 18 13 appealing (such as pamphlets and magazines) Cabin crew are not always willing to 3 10 17 29 18 help passengers Cabin crew are quick to respond to 4 12 16 10 17 passengers request When passengers have a problem, 5 cabin crew show a sincere interest in 15 23 8 10 solving it 6 Safety 20 19 15 20 Cabin crew do not always understand 7 11 15 27 22 your special needs in some cases Cabin crew operating hours on board 8 18 18 10 9 convenient to all passengers 9 Passengers feel safe on-board 20 6 17 10 Cabin crew are knowledgeable to 10 answer passengers travel-related 24 10 33 5 questions Total 160 158 181 131

Null Hypothesis: There is no significance difference between airlines preferred with respect to dimension of service quality of domestic airlines passenger. 10

TABLE 2

Chi-square test for association between airlines preferred and level of service

quality in domestic airlines passenger

Airlines preferred and level of Chi- Airlines service quality in domestic Total square P value Preferred airlines passenger value Low Average High 27 84 49 Spice Jet (16.9%) (52.5%) (30.6%) 160 [16.2%] [28.5%] [29.2%] 46 61 51 Jet Airways (29.1%) (38.6%) (32.3%) 158 [27.5%] [20.7%] [30.4%] 57 90 34 18.632 0.005** Indigo (31.5%) (49.7%) (18.8%) 181 [34.1%] [30.5%] [20.2%] 37 60 34 Air India (28.2%) (45.8%) (26.0%) 131 [22.2%] [20.3%] [20.2%] Total 167 295 168 630 Note: 1. The value within parenthesis ( ) refer to row percentage 2. The value within square bracket [ ] refer to column percentage 3. ** denotes significant at 1% level

Since P value is less than 0.01, the null hypothesis is rejected at 1 percent level

of significance. Hence, concluded that there is association between airlines preferred

and level of service quality in domestic airlines passenger. 16.9% of spice jet have

low level of service quality, 30.6% of spice jet have high quality of service, whereas

29.1% of jet airways have low service quality and 32.3% of jet airways have high

service quality. 31.5% of indigo have low service quality and 18.8% of indigo have 11 high service quality. 28.2% of air India have low level of service quality, whereas

26.0% of air India have high quality of service.

CONCLUSION

It is concluded that the Air India is very low when compared to Jet Airways,

Spice Jet and Indigo in their services. Hence, there is association between airlines preferred and level of service quality in domestic airlines passenger. Domestic airline within India remained stagnant over many decades. Deep-rooted bureaucratic policies constrained any development and the state monopolized all domestic aviation decisions. However, a strengthening economy coupled with an increasing number of wealthy inhabitants has triggered change with demand for air transport outstripping capacity. In response the government grasped aviation reform following a ministerial report that provided a road map as the way forward for India’s domestic airlines policies. The voluminous orders for aircraft to further develop economic activity by loosening regulatory barriers. The survey captured the perceptions of passengers who are now travelling in this rapidly changing environment of freer and more competitive markets. India’s first low cost carrier, Air India has changed the competitive landscape within India. The survey results confirm the hypothesis that their exists two distinct markets, one comprising those passengers who choose a full service airline and the other those that select a low cost carrier.

REFERENCES

Joyce A. Hunter, “A study of consumer perception of smiling customer service within

the airline industry” J Transp Secur (2011) 4:35–56. 12

Kittichai Thanasupsin, Suraphan Chaichana and Sudtida Pliankarom, “Factors

influencing mode selections of low-cost carriers and a full service airline in

Thailand” transportation journal, (2010), pp35-45.

Steyn, T. F. J. et al, The effect of service failure and recovery on airline-passenger

Relationships: a comparison between South African and United states airline

passengers” Journal of Management Policy and Practice vol. 12(5) 2011, pp

105-115.

Sunil Babbar and Xenophon Koufteros, “The human element in airline service

quality: contact personnel and the customer” International Journal of

Operations & Production Management, Vol. 28 No. 9, 2008, pp. 804-830.