The Effect of Covid-19 on Airline Transportation Services: A Study on Service Robots Usage Intention

Abstract

Robots have started to be used in the service sector as well as in the manufacturing industry. The use of service robots in airport services such as tourism and hospital services also brings many advantages. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, reducing physical contact and providing hygiene are essential benefits of service robots. For this purpose, the effect of Covid-19 fear on perceived trust in service robots and intention to use them at airports was investigated in this study. For analysis, data were collected from 730 participants from 64 different countries by questionnaire. The data were analyzed with SPSS and AMOS package programs. As a result of the structural equation model analysis determined that Covid-19 fear affects perceived trust in service robots and intention to use them positively, and perceived trust also affects intention to use service robots positively. In addition, as a result of the Process Macro analysis, it was found that perceived trust has a high mediating effect on the effect of Covid-19 fear on intention to use. Research results show that people's attitudes towards Covid-19 shape the perception of robot usage in air transport services.