Service Quality Perceptions of Domestic Airline Consumers in India - An Emperical Study

Abstract

Services are intangible by nature. Services are heterogeneous and airline services are no exception to this. Services provided inside aircraft are intangible and highly variable. Airline services are highly personalized. The airline product is a highly perishable one. The airliner companies Management's believe that, they are providing committed quality of service to the customers, but in the point of view of the customer, airliners' are lacking in quality service. Airliners' lacks in awareness about service quality and are not aware that giving better service to the customers helps in better company performances In view of the above there is ample scope of research in the area of Service offerings with a view of Customer Service in domestic airlines arena which has potential research possibilities in Indian Airlines Industry. This paper showcases some of the findings in this direction with respect to Indian Domestic Airline Industry. It highlights to examine how the customers are feeling about the company's services and its service quality. The two main constituents are the "quality expected or experienced" and "quality perceived" by the customer. As study on these variables, the Airlines best conforming to customers' perceptions are Kingfisher Airlines and Indigo Airlines. JEL Classification Numbers: M3, M31