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 inflight 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 COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 335
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 COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 336
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 COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 337
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. COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 338
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". COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 339
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 inflight 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. COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 340
Table I Respondents Demographic Profile Profile Characteristics n % Gender Male 67 67 Age Income (Saudi Arabian Riyals) Qualifications Marital Status Female 33 33 Total 100 100 < 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 <4000 04 04 4001-6000 26 26 6001-8000 38 38 8001-10000 18 18 >10000 14 14 Total 100 100 Diploma 00 00 Bachelors 05 05 Masters 82 82 PhDs 13 13 Total 100 100 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. COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 341
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. COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 342
TABLE IV Composition of Demographic Profile of Respondents and Satisfaction Levels towards Cabin Crew Services Demographic Profile Satisfaction Levels Total Chi- VS S UN DS VD Square Value Gender Male 05 42 08 10 02 67 Age Income Qualification Marital Status Female 07 15 05 05 01 33 Total 12 57 13 15 03 100 < 21 00 00 00 00 00 00 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 <4000 01 01 02 00 00 04 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 Diploma 00 01 00 00 00 01 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 Single 02 07 00 01 00 10 Married 10 50 13 14 03 90 df Asymp. Sig. 4.811 4 0.307 9.180 12 0.688 16.76 16 0.401 10.078 12 0.609 2.885 4 0.577 Total 12 57 13 15 03 100 VD-Very Dissatisfied, DS-Dissatisfied, UN-Undecided, S-Satisfied, VS-Very Satisfied COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 343
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 Chisquare 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. COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 344
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 chisquare 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. COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 345
Services Reservation Boarding Cabin Crew Food and Beverages In-flight Entertainment Table V Levels of Satisfaction with regard to travel companions Travel Satisfaction levels Total Companions VS S UN DS VD 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 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 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 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 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. COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 346
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. COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 347
Table VI Descriptive Statistics of Service Levels Services Levels of Services MEAN S.D TICKETING STAFF ATTITUDE VP P A G E 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. COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 348
Table VII Levels of Satisfaction and Number of Trips Services No. of Trips Satisfaction Levels Total VS S UN DS VD <2 00 14 02 04 00 20 Reservation Boarding Cabin Crew Food and Beverages In-flight Entertainment 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 <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 <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 <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 <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 COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 349
5.8 Correlation Analysis The data is measured by Spearman Coefficient of Correlation because the data is nonparametric 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) (1) Correlation Coefficient 1.000 0.306** Sig. (2-tailed) 0.002 Spearman s rho 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. COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 350
Table IX Correlation between ticketing and cabin crew efficiency Correlation (1) (2) (1) Correlation Coefficient 1.000 0.253* Sig. (2-tailed) 0.011 Spearman s rho 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) (1) Correlation Coefficient 1 0.196 Sig. (2-tailed) 0.051 Spearman s rho 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 COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 351
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) (1) Correlation Coefficient 1.000 0.202* Sig. (2-tailed) 0.044 Spearman s rho 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. COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 352
Table XII Correlation between cabins and rest room cleanliness Correlation (1) (2) (1) Correlation Coefficient 1.000 0.414** Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 Spearman s rho 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. COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 353
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. COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 354
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. COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 355
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