Mediating Role of Perceived Health Risk on Customer Experience and Customer Satisfaction: Evidence from the Airline Industry in India During COVID-19

Abstract

With a steep decrease in the rate of COVID-19 infection, and a corresponding increase in the number of vaccinated people, countries have begun to reopen borders to foreign travellers, triggering the resumption of aviation services. However, people are still apprehensive, and are avoiding travel, hindering air travel to get back to the pre-COVID era. This paper determines the experience of air travellers' during the pandemic applying EXQ model. Additionally, it investigates the role of perceived health risk as a mediating variable in an extended EXQ model. We collected data from a sample of 122 air travelers during the pandemic and analyzed it using IBM SPSS. The outcome of this study sheds light on the experiences of pandemic-affected airline passengers, revealing in the process, factors that passengers value much more now than ever before. The findings confirm that perceived health risk significantly mediates the relationship between customer experience and satisfaction.