Assessment of factors determining airline consumer loyalty: Case study in Lithuania

Abstract

The aviation sector is constantly expanding and it is strongly influenced by external factors, which gives rise to significant competition between airlines. One of the most effective ways for an airline to gain a competitive advantage is to keep its customers as loyal users of the provided services, able to provide airlines with a stable revenue for the services they sell. The purpose of this paper was to identify the factors that have the greatest impact on airline passengers’ loyalty. This study analyzed the data from passengers of two classes: prestige (business) and economy. Prestige (business) passengers pay more attention to service quality (beverage and food selection, service and quality, especially accessibility, etc.), privacy, individual attention, and airline reliability, while economy class passengers focus on price and basic perception of service quality. Data were collected from 409 passengers who travelled from Lithuania airports (Vilnius, Kaunas, Palanga) to other countries. The results suggest that there are different factors of in-flight service quality that are important according to the customer seat class. The results indicate that 71% of passenger loyalty is explained by image and image is explained by satisfaction. In addition, service quality and price are found to have positive effects on satisfaction. Compared with price, service quality is found to be a stronger determinant of satisfaction.