Post on 06-May-2020
Faculty of Organisation and Management
BSc (Honours) Tourism Management
Title A study to investigate the service quality perceptions of Cathay Pacific Airway passengers Name Au Wai Ho, Alex Student No 91203349 Month Year April 2009
Sheffield Hallam University
Faculty of Organisation and Management
Title A study to investigate the service quality perceptions of Cathay Pacific Airway passengers FULL NAME Au Wai Ho, Alex STUDENT No 91203349 Supervisor: Dr. Connie Mok In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Tourism Management. Month Year April 2009
I
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Dr. Connie Mok who supervised the whole process of this
dissertation with patience, guidance and assistance.
I would also like to give thanks to Ms. Jorica Fok and Ms. Elaine Yip for their
great support and suggestions for this dissertation.
Finally, the researcher would like to thank all the respondents who had
participated in the survey of this study for providing valuable information for the
primary research.
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Abstract
The airline industry was undergoing a very difficult time and the highly competitive market environment pressurized airline to deliver high quality services. It was very important for developing marketing strategies, service quality management, service segmentation strategies and product development to obtain the new customers and retain the exceeding customers of different groups of passengers. To achieve this ultimate goal, this paper had investigated passengers’ perceptions by 22 SERVQUAL attributes on five service quality dimensions: Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy (Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry, 1990).The result demonstrated that ‘Empathy’ was the most important service quality dimension. And “Tangible’ got the highest mean score of service quality perception of Cathay Pacific Airways passengers.
Cathay Pacific Airways also needed to understand the significant difference among airline service quality perception, demographic characteristics and travel patterns. One-way ANOVA and an independent sample t-test were applied to the data collected from the passengers who traveled with Cathay Pacific Airways in the past 12 months and their age were all above 18 years old. The result revealed that passengers’ perception were significantly different across age, nationality, occupation, class of cabin, frequency of travel and purpose of travel.
Based on the finding on this research, the researcher also recommended some improvement strategies to Cathay Pacific Airways to enhance the service quality perception of the passengers.
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Table of Content
Page
Title Page
Acknowledgements I
Abstract II
Table of Contents III
List of figures V
List of Tables VI
List of Abbreviations VII
Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Introduction of Cathay Pacific Airways 1 1.2 Service quality of Cathay Pacific Airways 2 1.3 The key challenges of Cathay Pacific Airways 4 1.4 Aim & objectives of the research 6
Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.1 Characteristics of tourism services 7 2.2 Dimensions of service quality 8 2.3 SERVQUAL gap model 9 2.4 Perception of service quality 11 2.5 Importance of marketing strategies 14 2.6 Importance of service quality 15 2.7 Airline service quality study 18 2.8 Service quality dimensions in airline industry 21
Chapter 3 Methodology
3.1 Secondary research 26 3.2 Limitations of secondary research 26
IV
3.3 Primary research 27 3.4 Sampling and data collection 28 3.5 Survey instrument 29 3.6 Limitation of primary research 31
Chapter 4 Results
4.1 Demographic results 32 4.2 Travel pattern results 34 4.3 Importance of service quality dimensions 37 4.4 Means of perceived service quality 38 4.5 Means and Rank of 22 SERVQUAL service quality statements 41 4.6 Passengers perception differences by genders 45 4.7 Passengers perception differences by age 46 4.8 Passengers perception differences by nationalities 49 4.9 Passengers perception differences by education level 52 4.10 Passengers perception differences by seat class 54 4.11 Passengers perception differences by occupation 59 4.12 Passengers perception differences by frequency of travel 62 4.13 Passengers perception differences by purpose of travel 64
Chapter 5 Conclusions and Recommendations
5.1 Conclusion 68 5.2 Recommendations for the further studies 71 5.3 Recommendation for Cathay Pacific Airways 72
Reference 75
Appendices
I: Market share of Top 10 Airlines used by visitors 2006 & 2007 84
II: 22 SERVQUAL service quality perception statements 85
III: Questionnaire compiled in Chinese and English version 86
V
List of Figure
Figure 1 SERVQUAL gap analysis model
VI
List of tables
4.1 Demographic results
4.2 Travel pattern of Cathay Pacific Airways passengers
4.3 Importance of service quality dimensions
4.4 Means of perceived service quality
4.5 Means and Rank of 22 SERVQUAL service quality statements
4.6 Passengers perception differences by genders
4.7 Passengers perception differences by age
4.8 Passengers perception differences by nationalities
4.9 Passengers perception differences by education level
4.10 Passengers perception differences by seat class
4.11 Passengers perception differences by occupation
4.12 Passengers perception differences by frequency of travel
4.13 Passengers perception differences by purpose of travel
VII
List of Abbreviations
ANOVA One-way analysis of variance
CX Cathay Pacific Airways
SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
HKIA Hong Kong International Airport
HKSAR Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
HKTB Hong Kong Tourism Board
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Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Introduction of Cathay Pacific Airways
Cathay Pacific Airways had been serving and growing with Hong Kong for 60
years. Cathay Pacific's development was a typical Hong Kong success story.
From Shanghai where they were originally based they moved to Hong Kong
and started managing the airline. Nowadays, they owned more than 100
aircraft employed over 23,000 people and it was one of the largest airways in
Hong Kong. (Cathay Pacific Airways, 2009).
It was also an international airline registered and based in Hong Kong, offering
scheduled cargo and passenger services to over 90 destinations around the
world. Nowadays, Cathay Pacific Airways currently is ranked as the world’s 7th
most profitable airline (net profit) by operating revenue. Also, Cathay Pacific
was ranked 17th-largest in the world in terms of revenue passenger kilometers.
(Air Transport World, 2008). Cathay Pacific's success was a major driving
force behind Hong Kong's aviation development, which in turn supported Hong
Kong’s continued trade and economic growth.
Sultan and Simpson (2000) stated that the major airline industry competitors,
seeking to gain or expand market share globally or regionally, provided an
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opportunity to explore the service expectation and perception of customers of
different nationalities. Cathay Pacific had the biggest market share in Hong
Kong’s airlines industry, 32.4% in 2006 and 30.5% in 2007 respectively. Based
on the market share, it showed that Cathay Pacific Airways was a successful
airline in Hong Kong. (Hong Kong Tourism Board, 2007). (Appendix I).
1.2 Service quality of Cathay Pacific Airways
Cathay Pacific Airways set “Providing service straight from the heart” and
“Encouraging product leadership” as their mission. With its outstanding safety
record, quality management and remarkable service, Cathay Pacific Airways
awarded “Airline of the Year award runner-up” in 2008, “Best Airline Economy,
Business and First Class” in2008, and other service award and honors.
(Cathay Pacific Airways, 2008). Cathay Pacific Airways was a brand name that
Hong Kong people could be proud of.
In order to maintain the customer’s loyalty, Cathay Pacific Airways provide two
types of frequent flyer programs to the frequent travelers. They were the Marco
Polo Club and the Asia Miles which was an affiliated program with other
airlines.
With Cathay Pacific's worldwide network, Dragonair's extensive coverage of
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Mainland China, and both airlines' affiliation with the oneworld alliance, made
the Marco Polo Club be the most powerful airline loyalty club in Asia. The
Marco Polo Club let passengers enjoyed a world of benefits, convenience and
personalized service wherever they go, included: Priority check-in and
boarding, in-flight duty-free specials on Cathay Pacific and Dragonair, the club
magazine and other services. Asia Miles was a travel reward program which
the passengers could fly with 20 Asia Miles partner airlines to earn Asia Miles
towards flight awards, upgrades, companion tickets and other lifestyle awards
such as dining coupons and free accommodation.
Cathay Pacific Airways was one of the members of the oneworld alliances. The
oneworld brought together ten of the worlds biggest and the best airlines and
other 20 affiliates, including British Airways, Japan Airlines and American
Airlines. There were many benefits not only for customers, but also airlines
through the formation of alliances. The passengers could use different airlines
within their journeys as alliances allowed them to transfer between member
airlines easier. Customers could also get benefit substantially from the cost
reduction possibilities afforded by alliances. Furthermore, it was more easily
for people to travel to more places for greater value. The presence of alliance
was due to the constraints of flying regulations or economic concern to serve
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all markets in the world.
1.3 The key challenges of Cathay Pacific Airways
The airlines industry in Hong Kong faced intensive competition. There were
almost 90 airlines operated flights in the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA)
(Airport Authority Hong Kong, 2008). Consumer would like to seek for
information through the internet, magazines or other sources of information so
as to compare the service quality of Cathay Pacific Airways with other airlines.
As a result, the tools to maintain customer loyalty and market share were the
most challenge for full services carriers like Cathay Pacific Airways.
Hui (2006) who was the former Chief Secretary of HKSAR government stated
that this might be an increasing challenge as Cathay Pacific became not just a
regional, but a truly global and international operator. There were significant
implications in a wide range of policy matters involving leadership,
management, services, image, commitment and balance between commercial
and public interests.
Chan (2009), Bloomberg reporter stated that “Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., and
other Asian carriers will all post losses next year as the fallout from the global
economic crisis curbs demand for air travel and the fuel price at the higher
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level.” In August 2008, Cathay Pacific posted its first half-year loss in five years,
an interim loss of 663 million Hong Kong dollars and recently issued a second
profit warning for its full results in 2008. Harbison (2009), managing director of
the centre for Asia Pacific Aviation stated that “demand has fallen off very fast.
This is a global problem and it's not going to be resolved in three months. It's
going to be here for a year or maybe two years.''
The multinational company and the business travelers would like to reduce the
spending on business travel. Chan (2009) stated that Merrill Lynch & Co., UBS
AG and JPMorgan & Chase Co. were telling senior bankers in Asia to fly coach
on short-haul flights and reduce non-essential travel.
Airlines today are facing the difficult challenges of simultaneously maximizing
the customers’ satisfaction and minimizing the production costs and it is hard
to make a balance, and survive in the financial tsunami. The reason was that
when enhanced the service quality to satisfy the customer expectation, at the
same time the production costs was raised as well as the costs would affect
the price of the product or services. Indeed, it affected perception of
passengers on the service quality.
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1.4 Aim & objectives of the research
Due to the importance of service quality to airline industry, the researcher was
to investigate the performance of Cathay Pacific Airways as perceived by its
passengers, to suggest improvements to increase the repeated customers, to
maintain the market share and build up the brand loyalty. The following are the
objectives of the research:
Objectives:
1. To review and integrate the recent research in service quality;
2. To examine the service quality perception of Cathay Pacific Airways’
passengers through a quantitative research;
3. To explore the dimensions of service quality in evaluating the service
quality of Cathay Pacific Airways; and
4. To recommend improvement strategies to Cathay Pacific Airways based
on the findings of this study.
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Chapter 2 Literature Review
The theme of the research was to evaluate the service quality perception of
Cathay Pacific Airways’ passenger, so the researcher would like to mention
service quality perception concept of airline’s passenger in large proportion of
the study. Firstly, the researcher mentioned the characteristics of the tourism
service and the base concept of service quality- SERVQUAL model. Then the
researcher would like to mention the service quality perception and
concentrate on the investigation of the service quality concept in the airline
industry. Finally, the researcher defined four hypotheses for the further
research in this study.
2.1 Characteristics of tourism services
Reisinger (2001) stated that tourism services are primarily intangible. This
mean that tourism services did not have a physical dimension: could not be
touched, seen, tasted, felt, heard, or smelled in the same way as goods before
they were purchased. Williams and Buswell (2003) stated that the intangibles
were: inseparability, perishability and heterogeneity. Chang and Yeh (2002)
argued that quality in airline services was difficult to describe and measure due
to its heterogeneity, intangibility and inseparability.
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Reisinger (2001) argued that production and consumption of tourism services
were inseparable. Tourism services could not produce in one place,
transported for sale in another, and sold and consumed again in another.
Williams and Buswell (2003) stated that tourism services were perishable, this
mean that the services could not be stored. Reisinger (2001) argued that
tourism services were heterogeneous. They vary in standard and quality over
time because they were delivered by people to people and were a function of
human performance.
2.2 Dimensions of service quality
Wuest (2001) stated that service quality was the result of a complex network of
several dimensions. Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1988, 1994a) were
among the most recognized researchers in the area of service quality. Their
development and refinement of the SERVQUAL model produced generic
measure of service quality through examination of twenty two service items
and were categorized into five dimensions of service: tangibles, reliability,
responsiveness, assurance and empathy.
Tangibles consisted of the “appearance of physical facilities, equipment,
personnel and communications materials” (Berry and Parasuraman, 1991).
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Reliability reflected the service provider’s ability to perform service dependably
and accurately” (Parsuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, 1988). Furthermore, they
stated that responsiveness represented the “willingness to help customers and
provide prompt service”. Assurance reflected the “knowledge and courtesy of
employees and their ability to inspire trust and confidence”. Empathy involved
the “caring, individualized attention the firm provides its customers”.
2.3 SERVQUAL gap model
Parasuraman, Berry and Zeithaml (1985) argued that service quality was the
difference or gap between customer expectations and perceptions of the
service. It was known as the Gap5 of the SERVQUAL gap analysis model
(Figure 1).
The service quality gaps could be generated both internally and externally to
the organization. Gap 5 was external: customer expectations of the service
judged against perceptions of the service were affected by word-of-mouth
opinions, customers’ personal needs and their past experiences of their
current and previous service providers (Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry,
1990).
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Figure 1: SERVQUAL gap analysis model. (Source: Zeithaml et al., 1990)
The purpose of this study was to examine passenger perceptions of airline
service quality, the researcher wanted to recommend the further research on
the passenger expectation of Cathay Pacific Airways services, to compare the
result of this study and to adopt the SERVQUAL gap analysis model (gap 5) to
analysis the service quality of the Cathay Pacific Airways. Sultan and Simpson
(2000) stated that it was essential to know to what degree customer
perceptions of existing service fail to meet expectation.
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2.4 Perception of service quality
Berry and Parasuraman (1991) argued that guests were the judges of service
quality. Williams and Buswell (2003) stated that customer perceptions were
based on the actual service delivered, whilst customer expectations were
based on past experiences, word of mouth and personal needs. Service
quality perceptions were often defined as the difference between what a
customer expected and what they actually perceived as outcome (Headley and
Bowen, 1997). There were number of writers included Peter (1987) suggested
that if customer perception of a service was “excellent” and that was
consistently met their needs, the organization would establish a reputation for
“excellence”, e.g. Ritz Hotel or Disneyland.
The service quality perceptions of the guests vary widely. Similarly, guests’
perceived satisfaction with performed services also varies widely. Wuest (2001)
stated that there were two distinct variables influence guests’ perceptions:
customer expectations and service standards. Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and
Berry (1994b) stated that the gap between expectations and service
standards/performance was the primary indicator of overall service quality.
Wuest (2001) stated that guests expectations of service quality influences their
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resulting level of satisfaction. Lewison (1997) categorized service expectations
in three levels: essential, expected, and optional. Zeithaml, Berry, and
Parasuraman (1993) stated similar model of customer service expectations:
predicted, adequate, and desired. Expected services were those which guests
assumed the service provider should offer in order to provide adequate service.
(Wuest, 2001) Moreover, the expected services needed to provide beyond the
essential services by the company to stay in business in order to be
competitive in the industry.
But the needs of the customers were changing all the time, simultaneously
expected services increased, guests became more demanding, requiring the
service provider to move beyond what is common place. (Wuest, 2001) The
service companies needed to be continuous improving their service quality to
maintain the market share and the service quality perception of the consumers.
Juran (1988) argued that the only appropriate goal in the quality function of the
organization was continuous improvement.
Service standard were changing benchmarks as customer’s expectations
increase and the organization responds to such changes. (Callan,1994).
Appropriate service standards depended on the mission of the organization
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and further depended on two factors: the service policies of the organization
and the actual performance of the service procedures. (Wuest, 2001) And the
service organizations established their service policies were based on their
company’s image and appropriate to their target market. But in the real world
the service standard and the policies established by the service organization,
but the personnel might not perform adequately. Dailey (1997) argued that
relay and motivate employees were more likely to capture the essence of a
quality service plan, and Starbucks was a good example. Their early company
goal was to provide excellent service and led to success in a pricey coffee
market.
Tsaur, Chang and Yen (2002) stated that different individual usually had wide
range of perceptions toward quality service, depending on their preference
structure and roles in process (service providers/receivers). There were many
possible aspects that could influence the airline consumer’s perception of
quality at different times in the consumption process (Headly and Bowen,
1997).
Customer constantly complained about the quality of service provided by the
airlines, and their perceptions were that it was deteriorating at a significant rate
14
(McCollough, Berry and Yadav, 2000). The perception was that the increase in
air rage incidents arise from the increase in poor service (Brady and Cronim,
2001). Furthermore, the employee’s behavior was critical and could be directly
correlated to shaping the perception of the organization’s image (Hunter,
2006).
2.5 Importance of marketing strategies
Customers’ perception of service quality and the satisfaction levels were
affected by media advertising, employees’ emotions, and service guarantee
(Parasuraman et al, 1985). Park (2007) also stated that a range of airlines’
marketing strategies and particular marketing variables influencing airline
choice. Passengers identified the relative strengths and weaknesses of these
factors among airlines with their perceptions varying across airlines. If the
airlines wanted to identify their competitive position, they needed to
understand passengers’ perception of choice factors.
Therefore, companies got the competitive advantages in these three areas will
become success. The delivery of high- quality service became a marketing
requirement among air carriers as a result of competitive pressure (Ostrowski,
O’Brien and Gordon, 1993). There were some of the empirical studies about
15
the demand for airline services showed that service quality was central to the
choice of airlines for both business and leisure travelers (Bureau of Transport
and Communications Economies, 1994).
Airlines introduced many promotional incentives such as frequent flyer
program- Asia Miles, Marco Polo Club, Mileage Plus Frequent Flyer Program
and so on. Tsaur, Chang and Yen (2002) stated that airline hoped to
consolidate the market share and enhanced profitability by the marketing
strategies. However, the marginal benefits of marketing strategies gradually
reduced because most of the airlines acted similarity. The airlines recognized
the limitation of the marketing strategies, some of the airlines tended to focus
on the commitment of improving customer service quality, such as Cathay
Pacific Airways.
2.6 Importance of Service Quality
Pakdil and Aydin (2007) stated that understanding, building and maintaining
quality were the main concerns of business. In the real world, providing quality
was not a concern of manufacturing companies alone. Akan (1995) argued
that delivering quality service was also important for many service firms. In the
recent years, there were many service organizations recognized service
16
quality as potential source of sustainable competitive advantage. (Kuei, 1998).
Gilbert and Wong (2003) suggested that delivering superior service quality was
a prerequisite for success and survival in today’s competitive business
environment. It was generally acknowledged that the only appropriate goal in
the quality function of the organization was continuous improvement (Juran,
1988).
Service quality was the difference between consumers’ perceived service
performance and their expectations (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1985). If
the customers received the service met or exceeded their expectations,
customers had high perceptions of service quality, customers were satisfied
and felt happy, and they would continue to buy from you, or to buy another
product or service from you or recommended your services to others. On the
other hand, if the services received lower or out of their expectation, they had
low perception of service quality. So that better service quality would bring in
more revenue and higher profitability.
Reichheld (1996) stated that in United States, the companies lose their
customer about 68% would leave on average base over five year’ time
because of a bad service experience. And the main point was that it cost five
17
times more to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one. Providing
excellent customer service could make the different, to change the bad service
quality perception of airline passengers and to capture the business
opportunities.
In Taiwan, the air travel market, both domestic and international, had been
experiencing great competition due to both the deregulation and the increasing
of customer’s awareness of service quality (Tsaur, Chang and Yen, 2002). The
US carriers saw the airline alliances as a way of improving their service quality,
but in the long term, the success of an alliance may be jeopardized if partners
were perceived not to offer the same level of service (Sultan and Simpson,
2000).
Gilbert and Wong (2002) stated that improvement in service provided
improved profit due to increasing the customer base through new and repeat
purchase from more loyal customers. Gale (1992) indicated that companies
that offer superior service were able to charge 8 per cent more for their
product.
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2.7 Airline service quality study
There were a range of services provided by the air carriers to the customers
including ticket reservation, purchase, airport group service, on board service
and service at the destination. It also consisted of the assistance associated
with disruption such as lost-baggage handing and service for delayed
passengers (Tsaur, Chang and Yen, 2002).
The researcher would like to mention the service quality more specific in the
airline industry. Providing superior service quality was the most important
blocks of gaining competitive advantages to retain and expand the market
share and earn more profit in the service industry, especially in the airline
industry. However, there were some study did not agreed with this. Gilbert and
Wong (2003) stated that some passengers might feel price was an important
aspect of demand. Most air passengers were sensitive to airline ticket price
and airlines thus used pricing as a marketing tool to differentiate market based
on elasticity of demand. Park (2007) stated that prices were determined based
on different fare sensitivities of business and leisure passengers.
Collis (1998) stated that IATA in 1997 carried out research in North America,
Europe and Asia and found passengers favored punctuality (65 percent) and
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scheduling (52 percent) over price (37 percent). But this was not to say that
providing superior service quality was the secondary concern to airlines, and
for this study, the researcher was emphasis on improving the service
strategies.
Moreover, service quality also affected passenger’s choices, seen as referring
to passengers’ overall impressions of the relative quality of airlines and their
services. It could influence an airline’s competitive advantage (Morash and
Ozment, 1994) and could be the driver of passenger satisfaction, loyalty and
passenger’s choice of airline (Ostrowski et al.). In the airline industry,
understanding the passenger’s perception and expectation was essential to
providing desired service quality. There were many possible aspects that could
influence the airline consumer’s perception of quality at different times in the
consumption process. (Headly and Bowen, 1997)
Customer constantly complained about the quality of service provided by the
airlines, and their perceptions were that it was deteriorating at a significant rate
(McCollough, Berry and Yadav, 2000). The perception was that the increase in
air rage incidents arise from the increase in poor service (Brady and Cronim,
2001). Furthermore, the employee’s behavior was critical and could be directly
20
correlated to shaping the perception of the organization’s image (Hunter,
2006).
Clifford, Cunningham and Moomkyu (1994) stated that in the pre deregulation
era airline service quality was assessed with respect to industry and
managerial variables such as flight frequency, load factors, transit times and
aircraft type. But in the post deregulation environment, superior service quality
has been accepted as an important source of customer retention and loyalty,
which may ultimately lead to superior competitive performance (Parasurman et
al., 1985, 1988; Zeithaml, Berry and Parasurman, 1996; Dawkins and
Reichheld, 1990; Reichheld and Sasser, 1990; Berry and Parasurman, 1994).
There were further studies on airline service quality concept. Parasurman et al.
(1991b) argued that customer loyalty could be achieved by organizations that
display consistency, reliability and fairness in the provision of their services. It
was mean that these three elements were the major component of achieving
superior airline service quality. A commercial market research which called
Zagat Research (2005) produced a report on airline service quality, and the
data was presented in four categories: Comfort, service, food and website.
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2.8 Service quality dimensions in airline industry
Chang and Yeh (2002) argued that quality in airline services was difficult to
describe and measure due to its heterogeneity, intangibility and inseparability.
And SERVQUAL had been proposed as a valid and reliable model in airline
service quality studies (Gilbert and Wong, 2003; Park, Robertson and Wu,
2004).
Pakdil and Aydin (2007) mentioned that the problem in airline sector was
whether the management could correctly perceive what customers wanted and
expected, and the “voice of customer” should be taken into the design process.
After delivering the services, services providers should monitor how well the
customers’ expectations had been met. SERVQUAL was the model that
providing the foundation for evaluating customers’ expectation and perception.
SERVQUAL had five dimensions to measure service quality: tangibles,
reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy (Zeithaml, Parasuraman
and Berry, 1990). And customers evaluated the quality of service by
determining whether there was any gap between their expectation and
perceptions (Gap 5). SERVQUAL was based on the idea that quality was a
subjective customer evaluation, as service was not a physical item, but an
22
experience ( Parasuraman et al., 1988; Gronroos, 1990). So that customers’
perception was a better measure than other performance measures (Akan,
1995).
Previous studies found that individual dimensions of service quality in addition
to overall quality influence passenger’ buying behavior (Park, Robertson and
Wu, 2005). Based on the airline service quality report from SKYTRAX,
passengers’ opinions and experiences toward different airline services and
perception of different airline service dimensions had a direct or indirect effect
on buying behavior (Park, 2007).
The recent study by Park (2007), he investigated Korean and Australian
international airline passengers’ perceptions of 11 factors that might influence
their buying behavior, there were: in flight service, reservation-related service,
airport service, reliability, employee service, flight availability, perceived price,
passenger satisfaction, perceived value, airline image, and overall service
quality. The result revealed that passenger perceptions were significantly
different across seat class and usage frequencies
Sultan and Simpson (2000) investigated the perceptions of European and US
passengers and found that the two passengers groups had significant
23
difference in the perception of the airline service quality, excepted in the
responsiveness dimension. It was mean that service quality perceptions vary
by nationality.
Gilbert and Wong (2002) stated that there were three major reasons
passengers needed to travel: namely for business, for holiday and to visit
friends / relatives, and it was believed that each group’s perceptions would be
different. If passengers’ needs for travelling were different, then there would be
a significant difference in their perceptions of airline service quality.
Clifford, Cunningham and Moomkyu (1994) also used the SEEVQUAL scale
found that reliability was the dominant predictor of satisfaction while both
reliability and empathy influenced customer intention. Sultan and Simpson
(2000) found the SERVQUAL factor of reliability was the most important
dimension among air passengers.
There were many SERVQUAL related studies measured airline service quality
through various quality dimensions. Gourdin (1988) proposed airline service
quality in terms: price, safety, and timelines. Elliott and Roach (1993)
categorized timeliness luggage transport, food and beverage quality, seat
comfort, the check in process, and in- flight service dimensions. Furthermore,
24
Ostrowski et al. (1993) stated that to measure service quality with timeliness,
food and beverage quality, and comfort of seat dimensions. Truitt and Haynes
(1994) defined the convenience of transit, check-in process, timeliness, the
seat cleanliness, the processing of luggage, food and beverage quality, and
handling of customer complaints as the standards of service quality. Bowen
and Headley (2000) indicated on-time arrival, mishandled baggage, being
denied boarding, airline safety. Passenger complaints on items also included
to measured the service quality, such as flight, reservation, ticketing. Moreover,
the boarding problems included: fares, refunds, customer service, frequent
flyer programs and advertising also indicated in the service quality evaluation.
Besides the scholar’s argument, the US Department of Commerce monitored
schedule, non- stop flight availability, safety reputation, on-time reputation,
in-flight service reputation, and frequent flyer program as variables were
affecting the passenger’s choices.
Pakdil and Aydin (2007) stated that the quality dimensions used in evaluating
airline services vary extensively, but could be classify comprehensively within
the SERVQUAL dimensions. And in this study, the researcher was based the
SERVQUAL dimensions and the 22 SERVQUAL service quality perception
25
statements (Appendix II). Passenger perceptions of key factors of buying
behavior for different segments of air passengers were explored.
26
Chapter 3 Methodology
3.1 Secondary Research
Before conducted the primary research, the researcher firstly reviewed and
integrated the secondary data first. To organize the study, the researcher
gathered different sources of information from electronic database which
included the academic journal and electronic books. Those materials provided
a base concept and theories on service quality and service quality perception
of the airline passengers. The researcher not only obtained the theoretical
expertise about the service quality, but also got the useful and general
information from the internet. Internet was the convenient channel to do the
research and the researchers conducted the research by entering the
company websites of Cathay Pacific Airways and evaluated its company
annual report. The newspapers and magazines could provide more updated
information about the airline service quality, especially those related to the
Cathay Pacific Airways.
3.2 Limitations of Secondary Research
Clegg and Hardy (1996) stated that data were originally collected for another
purpose was called secondary data. The secondary data could be referenced
27
not really as the same as what the researcher wanted. Furthermore, the
economic environment was changing due to the global financial crisis, the data
and concept might not be applied probably in this study. The researcher found
that different empirical studies had different results and it was difficult to find
similar study or research on the service quality perception of airline
passengers. In this way, it was necessary to adopt the primary research to
enhance the reliability and validity of this study.
3.3 Primary research
In the primary research section of this study, the researcher adopted the
questionnaire survey to collect the data. Cowton (1998) stated that
questionnaire surveys were typically the quickest and easiest of the tools to
use. In order to get the service quality perception of Cathay Pacific Airways
passengers, the questionnaire with bilingual language description was
designed to get the information (Appendix III). Those questionnaires were
based on the SERVQUAL 22 instruments (Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry,
1990).
The questionnaire was initially tested by 10 tourism-related employees who
had traveled by Cathay Pacific Airways at least once in the past 12 months to
28
test how comprehensible the questionnaire was. After these procedures, minor
changes were incorporated into the final version. It was also known as the
quantitative method and using the questionnaires to collect data was the most
useful and convenience way to finish the study under the time and money
constraint.
3.4 Sampling and Data collection
The survey was conducted by convenience sampling method by face to face
format to collect the information. To make the sample more representative and
in order to enhance the validity, the sample was taken from the passengers
who traveled with Cathay Pacific Airways in the past 12 months and the age
was above 18 years old. Choosing those samples because of their memories
was fresh and the data might be much more representative than those traveled
for a long time ago. It took place at the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA).
The survey was administered 3 days in February.
A total of 100 completed samples were collected. To reduce the refusal survey,
the researcher contacted the passengers politely by explaining the purpose
and the contribution of this research. If the uncompleted survey were found,
then the next available was replaced until the total of 100 completed
29
questionnaires were collected.
3.5 Survey instrument
The questionnaire contained an introduction at the beginning of the
questionnaire to explain the objective of the survey and ensure the
confidentiality of respondents (Appendix III). The questionnaire contained
three sections. Section 1 was the 22 statements of the service quality
perception (Zeithaml et al, 1990). Section 2 asked respondents to prioritize the
five service quality dimensions “in order of importance”. Section 3 gathered the
demographic information from respondents such as gender, age, nationality,
educational level, job position, average use of airlines services, travelling class
and the purpose of last trips.
The researcher designed the questionnaire in several steps in light of the
previous literature. Firstly, the researcher adopted the Zeithaml et al. (1990)
Operational SERVQUAL airline service quality perception 22 statements as the
foundation of the questionnaire. The 22 statements had five main dimensions
to measure airline service quality: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness,
assurance and empathy (Zeithaml et al., 1990).
Under the 22 -item questions, Question 1 – 4 analyzed how customers face on
30
the tangibles items of Cathay Pacific Airways; question 5 – 9 analyzed how
customers feel on the reliability of Cathay Pacific; Questions 10 – 13 analyzed
the responsiveness; question 14 – 17 analyzed the assurance of Cathay
Pacific Airways and finally, question 18 – 22 analyzed the empathy of Cathay
Pacific Airways. The questionnaire designed in this way was more reliable and
valid which could provide a better understanding on the determinants of
service quality perception of Cathay Pacific Airways passengers.
In section 1, the 22 statements were rated by using 5 – point Likert scale to
measure the level of agreement to the 22 statements. Perceptions were rated
from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. The possible answers of this
part questions were pre-code thus all the interviews need to do was circle the
most suitable answers.
In section 2, the respondents needed to prioritize the service quality
dimensions “in order of importance” by using Ordinal scale to rank-orders them
from 1 = the least importance to 5 = the most importance.
In section 3, it contained 9 questions were structured as closed questions. The
possible answers of these questions were pre – code and the respondents
needed to tick the most suitable answers. The structured questions were
31
easier to make analysis.
3.6 Limitation of Primary Research
Due to the limited financial and human resources, convenience sampling was
used in the research and the sample size was not big. The data might only
reflect a part of the Cathay Pacific Airways passengers’ attitudes and opinion.
Besides, it could provide generalize service quality perception. However, the
researcher believed that the findings were useful for further research for the
larger or bigger sample size.
The questionnaire of this research was compiled in two languages – Chinese
and English. Due to the language constraints, some of the respondents might
not understand these two languages and became restricted to answer the
questions (Appendix III).
32
Chapter 4 Result and Analysis
After collecting a total of 100 completed questionnaires from the sample
population of Cathay Pacific Airways passengers, data were generated by
SPSS 16.0. In this chapter, the findings of the study were discussed.
4.1 Demographic results
Eight demographic variables were analyzed in the study by frequency and the
percentage of the sample size. Table 4.1 summarized the demographic
characteristics of Cathay Pacific Airways passengers of the sample size. There
were 46 males (46%) and 54 females (54%) by gender from the completed
questionnaires.
The listed information showed that several age groups of passengers had
been interviewed. The age group of 18 to 29 was (34%); the age group of 30 to
39 was (24%); the age group of 40 to 49 was (23%); the age group of 50 to 59
was (16%) and the age above 60 was (3%).
Besides, most of the respondents were Chinese (36%). The other nationalities
were American (17%), British (14%), Canadian (11%) and Southeast Asian
(6%) respectively. And the others were Australian and New Zealander (16%).
33
Table 4.1 Demographic characteristics of Cathay Pacific Airways passengers
Demographic characteristics Frequency (N = 100) Percentage (%)Gender Male 46 46.0
Female 54 54.0
Age 18-29 34 34.0
30-39 24 24.0
40-49 23 23.0
50-59 16 16.0
over 60 3 3.0
Nationalities Chinese 36 36.0
Japanese 0 0
French 0 0
Canadian 11 11.0
American 17 17.0
British 14 14.0
German 0 0
Southeast Asian 6 6.0
Other (Australian and New Zealander ) 16 16.0
Educational level Primary 4 4.0
Secondary 10 10.0
Tertiary, non-degree course 27 27.0
Tertiary, degree course 46 46.0
Postgraduate or above 13 13.0
Occupation Managers and administrators 10 10.0
Professional 13 13.0
Associate professionals 14 14.0
Clerks 15 15.0
Service workers and shop sales workers 14 14.0
Craft and related workers 0 0
Plant and machine operators and assemblers 0 0
Non-skilled workers 2 2.0
Students 19 19.0
Housewives 13 13.0
34
As Cathay Pacific Airways was an international airline, it was expected that the
respondents belonged to different nationalities all over the world. More than
85% of the respondents were at least tertiary educated of non – degree course
/ degree course and postgraduate or above.
According to the table 4.1, 37% of the respondents were managers and
administrators / professional / associate professionals, 19% were students,
15% were clerks, 14% were service workers and shop sales workers, 13%
were housewives and 2% were non-skilled workers.
4.2 Travel pattern results
Respondents were asked to state their travel pattern and the results were
summarized in Table 4.2. There was a very high proportion of respondents
travelling by Economy Class (81%), 19% of respondents were travelling by
Business Class and there were no respondents travelling by First class. The
results were quite reasonable as the seat capacity was in uneven distribution
pattern. The economy class was definitely the highest proportion of seat
capacity compare with other cabins in an aircraft.
The result showed that the study could not comprehensively to evaluate the
perceptions of service quality in various categories of cabin class. It was
35
because there was missing the first class profile. Besides, due to limitation of
time and the number of interviewers, the researcher could only collect the data
for 3 days. The researcher reached the respondents who were traveling in first
class and business class. Therefore, the researcher recommended that the
further research interview could be conducted with Cathay Pacific Airways
passengers in all cabin class.
Table 4.2 Travel pattern of Cathay Pacific Airways passengers Demographic characteristics Frequency (N = 100) Percentage (%)Class of cabin First Class 0 0
Business Class 19 19.0
Economy Class 81 81.0
Frequency of travel 1-6 flights 85 85.0
7-12 flights 15 15.0
More than 12 flights 0 0
Purpose of travel Company business 8 8.0
Education 2 2.0
Attend trade show / convention 5 5.0
Migration 0 0
Visiting friends and relative 9 9.0
Package holiday 39 39.0
Independent holiday 37 37.0
Other 0 0
Travel plan on future Yes 62 62
No 0 0
May be 38 38
36
The results in Table 4.2 showed that 85% of the respondents who traveled with
Cathay Pacific Airways were about 1 to 6 times in the past 12 months. The rest
of the respondents (15%) stated that they traveled abroad with Cathay Pacific
Airways at about 7 to 12 times in the past 12 months.
Regarding the respondents’ purpose of travel for the current trip, some
respondents had chosen more than one purpose but the interviewer
immediately clarified on the question. The purposes of travel fell into the
following categories: Over 85% of the respondents reported their purpose of
travel for the current trip was enjoying holiday. For those with holiday purpose,
39% of the respondents were package holiday travelers and 37% of the
respondents were independent holiday travelers and 9% of the respondents
were with the purpose of visiting friends and family.
There were 13% of the respondents were on business purpose, which 8% of
respondents were for company business and 5% of respondents were for
attending trade shows or conventions. The remaining 2% respondents were for
education. The results indicated that all those with business purpose, either for
company business or attending trade shows or conventions were the most
popular travelling purpose of the Cathay Pacific Airways passengers. These
37
results might due to the period of surveying. Since the survey was conducted
in February, it was the peak season of holiday travel.
No respondents stated that they would not travel by Cathay Pacific Airways in
the future. 62% of respondents indicated that they would travel by Cathay
Pacific Airways and the remaining 38% stated that they might consider Cathay
Pacific Airways as their carriers. The results showed that all the passengers of
Cathay Pacific Airways perceived a high quality service. And they were willing
and expecting to travel by Cathay Pacific Airways again. It indicated that the
service quality perception of Cathay Pacific Airway passengers was positive.
4.3 Importance of service quality dimensions
The questionnaire also asked the respondents to prioritize the service quality
dimensions, from 1, being the least importance, to 5, being the most
importance and the findings are given in Table 4.3.
In the table, it showed that Cathay Pacific Airways passengers thought the
most important dimension of service quality was ‘Empathy’, followed by
‘Tangibles’, Reliability’, ‘Responsiveness’ and ‘Assurance’. It was unmatched
the findings of Sultan and Simpson (2000). Sultan and Simpson (2000) found
38
that the SERVQUAL factor of ‘Reliability’ was the most important dimension of
service quality among air passengers.
This might imply that the Cathay Pacific Airways passengers were likely to
concern about the personal services and attentions by the airlines and they
were the most important elements for their choices of an airline. Therefore, the
customer services which provided by the airlines was a very important element
to retain the customers.
Table 4.3 Importance of service quality dimensions
Service quality dimensions N Mean Std. Deviation Empathy 100 3.52 1.47354
Tangibles 100 3.17 1.40745
Reliability 100 3.04 1.63867
Responsiveness 100 2.75 1.01876
Assurance 100 2.54 1.27462
Mean: 1 = the Least important; 5 = the most important
4.4 Means of perceived service quality
Customer perceptions were measured on a 5-point Likert scale, the highest of
score, and the greater level of agreement. The mean and average mean
scores of the 22 SERVQUAL statements were shown in Table 4.4.
Respondents presented their perception of service quality with different levels
of agreement.
39
The dimension of ‘Tangible’ got the highest average mean scores (3.92). By
contrast with Table 4.3, ‘Tangible’ was the second highest important dimension
of service quality, it showed that the respondents agreed that Cathay Pacific
Airways could provide a high standard of service quality of what the
respondents needed.
Comparing with other five service quality dimensions, the dimension of
‘Responsiveness’ obtained the lowest average mean (3.55). It indicated that it
was the area that Cathay Pacific Airways needed to improve their service.
Many respondents raised that the employees of Cathay Pacific Airways were
always too busy to respond to customer requests. Although the respondents
stated that the dimension of ‘Responsiveness’ was relatively unimportant when
comparing with the others service quality dimensions (Table 4.3).The
employee’s behavior was a critical factor and could be directly correlated to
shaping the perception of the organization’s image. If Cathay Pacific Airways
aimed to provide excellent service quality to their passengers, it is essential to
improve those service areas.
40
Table 4.4 Means of perceived service quality (N = 100) Attribute Mean Average Mean
Tangible 3.92
1. Up to date aircrafts and in-flight facilities 3.97
2. Physical facilities are visually appealing 3.84
3. Employees appear neat 4.01
4. The aircraft has clean and comfortable interiors and seats 3.89
Reliability 3.87
5. When Cathay Pacific Airways promises to do something by a certain time, they will do
so
3.77
6. When a customer has a problem, Cathay Pacific Airways shows a sincere interest in
solving it
3.69
7. Cathay Pacific Airways is dependable 3.96
8. Maintains a punctual flying schedule 3.77
9. Ensures safety of flying 4.17
Responsiveness 3.55
10. Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways tell its customers exactly when services will be
performed
3.51
11. Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways give prompt service to customers 3.55
12. Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are always willing to help customers 3.80
13. Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are never too busy to respond to customer
requests
3.32
Assurance 3.71
14. You can trust employees of Cathay Pacific Airways 3.65
15. You feel secure and safe during the payment transactions with Cathay Pacific 3.83
16. Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are polite and courteous 3.81
17. Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways have the knowledge to answer customers'
enquiry
3.55
Empathy 3.64
18. Cathay Pacific Airways gives you individual attention 3.53
19. Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways give you personal attention 3.55
20. Cathay Pacific Airways has convenient flight schedules and enough frequencies 3.89
21. Cathay Pacific Airways has your best interest at heart 3.67
22. Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways understand your specific needs 3.57
41
4.5 Means and Rank of 22 SERVQUAL service quality statements
5-point Likert scale was used to measure the level of agreement of each
statement, from 1, being strongly disagree to 5, strongly agree in Table 4.5.The
higher mean indicated the attribute had reached the higher level of agreement.
To find out the customer perception of each statement, the means of 22
SERVQUAL statements had been ranked and also been shown in Table 4.5.
All the items scored 3 or above on the 5-point Likert scale, indicated that
respondents had the perception of above average for all dimensions. On the
other hand, Cathay’s passenger perception of its service was excellent and it
could provide their service consistently in order to meet the passenger’s needs.
Delivering superior service quality was a fundamental factor for success and
survival in today’s competitive business environment. That was the reason of
why Cathay Pacific Airways had established a reputation for providing
excellent service quality, as the same as what the researcher mentioned
before in the introduction of this study.
Question 9, the attribute of ‘Ensure safety of flying’ had the highest mean
scores in those 22 SERVQUAL statements, which indicated that the safety
attribute was respondents’ most concerned area to choose Cathay Pacific
42
Airways as their carriers. This was consistent with Cathay Pacific’s mission to
maintain an excellent safety record.
Consisted with other four statements which ranked the top five in Table 4.5,
which were ‘Employees appear neat’ (mean = 4.01), ‘Up to date aircrafts and
in-flight facilities’ (mean = 3.97), ‘Cathay Pacific Airways is dependable’ (mean
= 3.96) and ‘The aircraft has clean and comfortable interiors and seats’ (mean
= 3.89). The top five attributes were the service quality components that
Cathay Pacific Airways dedicated to maintain their reputation. From the above
findings, it showed that passengers had a high impression on the dimension of
‘Tangible’. Because the top five attributes which were consisted three of the
‘Tangible’ components.
Table 4.5 Means and Rank of 22 SERVQUAL service quality statements (N = 100)
Dimension Attribute Mean Std.
Deviation Reliability Ensures safety of flying 4.17 0.766
Tangible Employees appear neat 4.01 0.703
Tangible Up to date aircrafts and in-flight facilities 3.97 0.744
Reliability Cathay Pacific Airways is dependable 3.96 0.803
Tangible The aircraft has clean and comfortable
interiors and seats
3.89 0.695
Empathy Cathay Pacific Airways has convenient flight
schedules and enough frequencies
3.89 0.777
43
Tangible Physical facilities are visually appealing 3.84 0.721
Assurance You feel secure and safe during the payment
transactions with Cathay Pacific Airways
3.83 0.766
Assurance Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are
polite and courteous
3.81 0.647
Responsiveness Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are
always willing to help customers
3.80 0.682
Reliability When Cathay Pacific Airways promises to do
something by a certain time, they will do so
3.77 0.777
Reliability Maintains a punctual flying schedule 3.77 0.680
Reliability When a customer has a problem, Cathay
Pacific Airways shows a sincere interest in
solving it
3.69 0.692
Empathy Cathay Pacific Airways has your best
interest at heart
3.67 0.779
Assurance You can trust employees of Cathay Pacific
Airways
3.65 0.687
Empathy Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways
understand your specific needs
3.57 0.607
Empathy Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways give
you personal attention
3.55 0.744
Responsiveness Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways give
prompt service to customers
3.55 0.702
Assurance Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways have
the knowledge to answer customers’ enquiry
3.55 0.716
Empathy Cathay Pacific Airways gives you individual
attention
3.53 0.731
Responsiveness Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways tell its
customers exactly when services will be
performed
3.51 0.732
Responsiveness Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are
never too busy to respond to customer
requests
3.32 0.665
44
Table 4.5 question 10 ‘Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways tell its customers
exactly when services will be performed’ and question 13 ‘Employees of
Cathay Pacific Airways are never too busy to respond to customer requests’
were the lowest rank of SERVQUAL statements at score of 3.51 and 3.32
respectively. The issue of responsiveness had become the service quality
failure of Cathay Pacific Airways. A detailed analysis of the ‘responsiveness’
dimensions were resulted in two situations.
Firstly, the importance of core service appeared to be clear such as baggage
check-in processes and the quality of reservation services. The second
situation was the service providers, such as the employees of Cathay Pacific
Airways in their responsiveness dimensions. It showed that the standard of
service quality was depending on how well the employees presented to the
customers. The employees were the frontline staff who delivered the real
quality service level of the airline to the passengers. Nowadays, customer are
seeking for a quick and prompt responded and wanted to know the actual
performance duration, so Cathay Pacific should cope with this trend in order to
increase their service quality standard in the ‘Responsiveness’ dimension.
45
4.6 Passengers perception differences by genders
To investigate the difference of passenger perceptions by gender, an
independent sample t-test was conducted for male and female passengers
(Table 4.6). To examine the attributes of influencing service quality perception
of Cathay Pacific Airways passengers, there were no other service quality
attributes significantly different from male and female passengers. This might
reflect that male and female passengers had the similar perception on the
service quality of Cathay Pacific Airways.
Table 4.6 Passengers perception differences by genders (Independent sample t-test)
Attribute Mean
t-value Sig. level
Male (N=46)
Female (N=54)
Up to date aircrafts and in-flight facilities 3.93 4 -0.427 0.67
Physical facilities are visually appealing 3.74 3.93 -1.296 0.198
Employees appear neat 4 4.02 -0.131 0.896
The aircraft has clean and comfortable interiors
and seats
3.78 3.98 -1.434 0.155
When Cathay Pacific Airways promises to do
something by a certain time, they will do so
3.88 3.7 0.924 0.358
When a customer has a problem, Cathay Pacific
Airways shows a sincere interest in solving it
3.76 3.63 0.945 0.347
Cathay Pacific Airways is dependable 4 3.93 0.458 0.648
Maintains a punctual flying schedule 3.78 3.76 0.17 0.865
Ensures safety of flying 4.13 4.2 -0.475 0.636
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways tell its
customers exactly when services will be
performed
3.57 3.46 0.695 0.489
46
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways give
prompt service to customers
3.57 3.54 0.199 0.843
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are always
willing to help customers
3.85 3.76 0.646 0.52
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are never
too busy to respond to customer requests
3.41 3.24 1.296 0.198
You can trust employees of Cathay Pacific
Airways
3.72 3.59 0.904 0.368
You feel secure and safe during the payment
transactions with Cathay Pacific Airways
3.89 3.78 0.737 0.463
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are polite
and courteous
3.8 3.81 -0.08 0.936
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways have the
knowledge to answer customers' enquiry
3.5217 3.5741 -0.363 0.718
Cathay Pacific Airways gives you individual
attention
3.61 3.46 0.993 0.323
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways give you
personal attention
3.67 3.44 1.549 0.125
Cathay Pacific Airways has convenient flight
schedules and enough frequencies
3.89 3.89 0.015 0.988
Cathay Pacific Airways has your best interest at
heart
3.72 3.63 0.559 0.577
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways understand
your specific needs
3.63 3.51 0.918 0.361
*Indicates significance level
47
heart’.
The means score of the youngest age group of 18 – 29 years old and the
oldest age groups over 60 years old were significantly higher than those of the
other age groups. This indicated that those two groups of passengers
commented that the employees of Cathay Pacific Airways were really helpful.
On the other hand, these two groups of passengers were the groups that
required highest demand for assistance by the employees of airlines. Because
younger passengers were lack of the travel experience, they might try to ask
for help initiatively. This would increase the interaction between employees of
Cathy Pacific Airways and the younger passengers. It could also increase the
chance to build up a good impression on the service quality perception.
Besides, the oldest passengers group also requested assistance of the airline
staff frequently. Comparing the attributes means on ‘Cathay Pacific Airways
has your best interest at heart’, it appeared that the younger groups between
18 – 39 years old were more likely to agree the ‘Cathay Pacific has their best
interest at heart’. This might have resulted from the fact that Cathay Pacific
Airways always launch the new products which the youngsters were interested
in, such as the in-flight entertainment system and the online check-in services.
48
Table 4.7 Passengers perception differences by age (ANOVA)
Attribute
Mean
F-value Sig. level
18-29 (N=34)
30-39 (N=24)
40-49 (N=23)
50-59 (N=16)
over 60
(N=3) Up to date aircrafts and in-flight
facilities
3.88 4.04 4.04 4 3.67 0.338 0.852
Physical facilities are visually
appealing
3.85 3.88 3.83 3.94 3 1.116 0.354
Employees appear neat 4.03 4 4 4 4 0.009 1
The aircraft has clean and
comfortable interiors and seats
3.97 3.83 3.83 4 3.33 0.778 0.542
When Cathay Pacific Airways
promises to do something by a
certain time, they will do so
3.74 3.75 3.87 3.69 4 0.219 0.927
When a customer has a
problem, Cathay Pacific
Airways shows a sincere
interest in solving it
3.74 3.71 3.61 3.75 3.33 0.34 0.85
Cathay Pacific Airways is
dependable
3.94 4 3.91 4.13 3.33 0.656 0.624
Maintains a punctual flying
schedule
3.85 3.83 3.7 3.63 3.67 0.437 0.782
Ensures safety of flying 4.15 4.21 4.22 4.19 3.67 0.361 0.836
Employees of Cathay Pacific
Airways tell its customers
exactly when services will be
performed
3.53 3.63 3.35 3.63 3 0.896 0.469
Employees of Cathay Pacific
Airways give prompt service to
customers
3.74 3.46 3.35 3.63 3.33 1.305 0.274
Employees of Cathay Pacific
Airways are always willing to
help customers
4.03 3.75 3.43 3.88 4 2.979 .023*
Employees of Cathay Pacific
Airways are never too busy to
respond to customer requests
3.47 3.13 3.22 3.44 3.33 1.225 0.305
You can trust employees of 3.85 3.63 3.43 3.63 3.33 1.508 0.206
49
Cathay Pacific Airways
You feel secure and safe
during the payment
transactions with Cathay
Pacific Airways
3.82 3.83 3.78 3.88 4 0.071 0.991
Employees of Cathay Pacific
Airways are polite and
courteous
3.82 3.83 3.65 4 3.67 0.728 0.575
Employees of Cathay Pacific
Airways have the knowledge to
answer customers' enquiry
3.68 3.54 3.48 3.5 3 0.779 0.542
Cathay Pacific Airways gives
you individual attention
3.65 3.46 3.48 3.56 3 0.698 0.595
Employees of Cathay Pacific
Airways give you personal
attention
3.56 3.5 3.65 3.56 3 0.538 0.708
Cathay Pacific Airways has
convenient flight schedules and
enough frequencies
4.12 3.71 3.83 3.81 3.67 1.208 0.313
Cathay Pacific Airways has
your best interest at heart
3.97 3.71 3.43 3.44 3 2.925 .025*
Employees of Cathay Pacific
Airways understand your
specific needs
3.71 3.58 3.43 3.56 3 1.397 0.241
*Indicates significance level
50
The means score of the British was significantly higher than the other
nationalities of passengers. It might reflect that the route between Hong Kong
and the United Kingdom was the major route with highly completive
environment. The major competitor of Cathay Pacific Airways on this routing
liked Virgin Atlantic which was famous for providing personal services to their
passengers. Cathay Pacific Airways needed to provide excellent service
quality as well as personal attention to their passengers to get the competitive
advantages. It was the reason why the British passenger gave higher scores
on this attributes when comparing to the others nationalities.
Table 4.8 Passengers perception differences by nationalities (ANOVA)
Attribute Mean
F-valueSig. level
1 2 3 4 5 6
(N=36) (N=11) (N=17) (N=14) (N=6) (N=16)
Up to date aircrafts and in-flight
facilities
3.83 4.27 4.06 4.21 4.17 3.69 1.482 0.203
Physical facilities are visually
appealing
3.78 4 3.94 4 4 3.56 0.896 0.487
Employees appear neat 4 4 4 4.21 4 3.875 0.345 0.884
The aircraft has clean and
comfortable interiors and seats
3.83 3.91 3.94 4.21 3.83 3.69 0.956 0.449
When Cathay Pacific Airways
promises to do something by a
certain time, they will do so
3.47 3.91 3.76 4 4.17 4 2.075 0.075
When a customer has a problem,
Cathay Pacific Airways shows a
sincere interest in solving it
3.53 3.73 3.77 3.79 3.83 3.81 0.635 0.673
Cathay Pacific Airways is dependable 3.83 4.36 4.12 4.14 4.17 3.56 1.966 0.091
Maintains a punctual flying schedule 3.56 3.73 3.88 3.93 4 3.94 1.325 0.26
51
Ensures safety of flying 4.11 4.46 4.12 4.21 4.33 4.06 0.476 0.793
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways
tell its customers exactly when
services will be performed
3.42 3.36 3.53 4 3.33 3.44 1.614 0.164
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways
give prompt service to customers
3.5 3.27 3.65 3.93 3.17 3.56 1.674 0.148
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways
are always willing to help customers
3.78 3.73 3.82 4.14 3.5 3.69 1.068 0.383
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways
are never too busy to respond to
customer requests
3.17 3.27 3.36 3.57 3.33 3.44 0.899 0.485
You can trust employees of Cathay
Pacific Airways
3.56 3.55 3.59 3.93 3.5 3.81 0.906 0.48
You feel secure and safe during the
payment transactions with Cathay
Pacific Airways
3.72 4.18 3.71 4.21 3.5 3.75 1.718 0.138
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways
are polite and courteous
3.72 3.64 3.82 4.21 3.67 3.81 1.482 0.203
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways
have the knowledge to answer
customers' enquiry
3.58 3.46 3.41 4 3.33 3.38 1.64 0.157
Cathay Pacific Airways gives you
individual attention
3.44 3.09 3.71 3.86 3.17 3.69 2.224 0.058
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways
give you personal attention
3.36 3.27 3.59 4.07 3.5 3.69 2.435 .040*
Cathay Pacific Airways has
convenient flight schedules and
enough frequencies
3.83 3.64 3.88 4.21 3.67 4 0.92 0.472
Cathay Pacific Airways has your best
interest at heart
3.58 3.27 3.71 3.86 3.67 3.94 1.22 0.306
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways
understand your specific needs
3.56 3.45 3.65 3.79 3.5 3.44 0.648 0.664
*Indicates significance level
52
4.9 Passengers perception differences by education level
Since the attributes influencing service quality perception of Cathay Pacific
Airways passengers were examined by one-way ANOVA, there were no other
service quality attributes to be significantly different by educational level. This
might reflect that various educational levels of passengers had similar
perception on the service quality of Cathay Pacific Airways and different
education level would not influence the passengers’ perception on the service
quality.
Table 4.9 Passengers perception differences by education level (ANOVA)
Attribute Mean
F-value Sig. level
1 2 3 4 5
(N=4) (N=10) (N=27) (N=46) (N=13)
Up to date aircrafts and in-flight facilities
4.5 4.1 3.78 3.98 4.08 1.065 0.378
Physical facilities are visually appealing
4 3.8 3.89 3.83 3.77 0.119 0.975
Employees appear neat 4.25 4.1 4.22 3.87 3.92 1.295 0.278The aircraft has clean and comfortable interiors and seats
4.75 3.9 3.78 3.93 3.69 2.11 0.086
When Cathay Pacific Airways promises to do something by a certain time, they will do so
4 3.6 3.74 3.8 3.77 0.232 0.92
When a customer has a problem, Cathay Pacific Airways shows a sincere interest in solving it
4 3.4 3.63 3.78 3.62 0.933 0.448
Cathay Pacific Airways is dependable 4.5 3.8 3.63 4.11 4.08 2.268 0.068Maintains a punctual flying schedule 3.25 3.8 3.63 3.89 3.77 1.258 0.292
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Ensures safety of flying 4.5 4 4.11 4.24 4.08 0.48 0.75Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways tell its customers exactly when services will be performed
3.75 3.6 3.33 3.48 3.85 1.26 0.291
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways give prompt service to customers
4 3.7 3.44 3.52 3.62 0.717 0.583
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are always willing to help customers
4.25 3.8 3.63 3.85 3.85 0.926 0.452
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are never too busy to respond to customer requests
3.5 3.2 3.22 3.41 3.23 0.574 0.682
You can trust employees of Cathay Pacific Airways
4.25 3.6 3.56 3.7 3.54 1.041 0.39
You feel secure and safe during the payment transactions with Cathay Pacific Airways
4 3.8 3.67 3.8 4.23 1.276 0.285
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are polite and courteous
3.75 3.8 3.93 3.72 3.92 0.551 0.699
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways have the knowledge to answer customers' enquiry
4.25 3.6 3.52 3.5 3.54 1.04 0.391
Cathay Pacific Airways gives you individual attention
3.5 3.6 3.56 3.54 3.38 0.16 0.958
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways give you personal attention
3.75 3.4 3.48 3.59 3.62 0.277 0.892
Cathay Pacific Airways has convenient flight schedules and enough frequencies
4 4.1 3.78 3.87 4 0.406 0.804
Cathay Pacific Airways has your best interest at heart
3.75 3.4 3.52 3.87 3.46 1.59 0.183
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways understand your specific needs
3.75 3.4 3.52 3.61 3.62 0.387 0.817
*Indicates significance level
54
4.10 Passengers perception differences by seat class
To investigate the differences of passenger perceptions by seat class, one-way
ANOVA was conducted for both business and economy class passengers
(Table 4.10). When attributes influencing Cathay Pacific Airways passengers’
service quality perception were examined, all the attributes of business class
scored higher than the mean score of economy class and scored 3 or above
on the 5-point Likert scale. It indicated that business class passengers had a
higher service quality perception than economy passengers.
Furthermore, there were 14 attributes out of 22 were found to be significantly
different between business class and economy class which included an
attribute was highly significantly (Table 4.10). The means of business class
passengers for these 14 attributes were significantly higher than economy
class passengers.
‘Employees appear neat’ and ‘the aircraft has clean and comfortable interiors
and seats’ were two tangible attributes. The result was expected because
business class passengers were provided with much better in-flight services
than economy class passengers. The business cabin was exceptional comfort
as well as high privacy with cozy surroundings. Business class seat contained
55
massage function and easy access to the aisle, the mood lighting to enhance
passenger flying experience and when it was time to sleep, passengers simply
pressed a button to turn the seat into a perfectly flat bed. Furthermore, the air
hostesses who were responsible to provide service in business class were
experienced. So that the service quality perception of business class
passengers of these two attributes were higher than economy class
passengers.
The passengers who traveled in business class rated ‘when Cathay Pacific
Airways promises to do something by a certain time, they will do so’
significantly higher than passengers who travelled in economy. This might
reflect that Cathay Pacific Airways played more concern on the business class
passengers and they would like to put more effort to finish the task or provide
the service what they were promised to do before the deadline. Cathay Pacific
Airways did not want to lose the business class passengers who paid at a
higher rate than who travelled in economy.
Respondents who traveled in business class rated ‘Employees of Cathay
Pacific Airways give prompt service to customers’, ‘Employees of Cathay
Pacific Airways are always willing to help customers’ and ‘Employees of
56
Cathay Pacific Airways are never too busy to respond to customer requests’ to
be significantly higher than those who traveled in economy class. And these
three attributes were responsiveness dimensions. This was expected as
Cathay Pacific Airways offered many different kind of services which were
related to the needs of business class passengers, such as business class
passengers had designated special check-in area at the airport, business class
lounge and pier service centre. All those service could enhance the service
quality perception of business class passengers.
The passengers who traveled in business class indicated all attributes of
assurance dimensions significantly higher than passengers who travelled in
economy class including ‘You can trust employees of Cathay Pacific Airways’,
‘You feel secure and safe during the payment transactions with Cathay Pacific
Airways’, ‘Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are polite and courteous’ and
‘Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways have the knowledge to answer
customers' enquiry’. The result showed that the business class passengers
had a higher service quality perception than economy class passengers. It was
because the business class passengers raised their enquiries more frequent
as they were frequent traveler. And most of the business class passengers had
transaction with Cathay Pacific directly, such as online booking and online
57
check in. It was different from economy class passengers setting their payment
transaction with travel agents.
Table 4.10 Passengers perception differences by seat class (ANOVA)
Attribute Mean
F-valueSig. level
First Business Economy
(N=81) (N=0) (N=19)
Up to date aircrafts and in-flight facilities NIL 4.26 3.90 3.599 0.061
Physical facilities are visually appealing NIL 3.89 3.83 0.134 0.715
Employees appear neat NIL 4.37 3.93 6.423 .013*
The aircraft has clean and comfortable interiors and
seats
NIL 4.21 3.81 5.204 .025*
When Cathay Pacific Airways promises to do something
by a certain time, they will do so
NIL 4.11 3.69 4.527 .036*
When a customer has a problem, Cathay Pacific
Airways shows a sincere interest in solving it
NIL 3.79 3.67 0.482 0.489
Cathay Pacific Airways is dependable NIL 4.16 3.91 1.431 0.235
Maintains a punctual flying schedule NIL 3.89 3.74 0.789 0.377
Ensures safety of flying NIL 4.21 4.16 0.065 0.799
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways tell its customers
exactly when services will be performed
NIL 3.74 3.46 2.284 0.134
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways give prompt
service to customers
NIL 3.95 3.46 8.058 .006*
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are always willing
to help customers
NIL 4.21 3.70 9.214 .003*
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are never too
busy to respond to customer requests
NIL 3.79 3.21 13.129 .000**
You can trust employees of Cathay Pacific Airways NIL 4.00 3.57 6.418 .013*
You feel secure and safe during the payment
transactions with Cathay Pacific Airways
NIL 4.16 3.75 4.446 .038*
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are polite and
courteous
NIL 4.21 3.72 9.801 .002*
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways have the
knowledge to answer customers' enquiry
NIL 4.00 3.44 10.12 .002*
Cathay Pacific Airways gives you individual attention NIL 3.95 3.43 8.202 .005*
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways give you personal NIL 4.00 3.44 9.31 .003*
58
attention
Cathay Pacific Airways has convenient flight schedules
and enough frequencies
NIL 4.16 3.83 2.839 0.095
Cathay Pacific Airways has your best interest at heart NIL 4.00 3.59 4.349 .040*
Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways understand your
specific needs
NIL 3.95 3.48 9.869 .002*
*Indicates significance level
59
service quality perception attributes. That was ‘Employees of Cathay Pacific
Airways give you personal attention’ and ‘Cathay Pacific Airways has your best
interest at heart’. When comparing the passengers groups who were students,
managers or administrators, it was find that students scored the overall service
quality significant lower than managers and administrators passengers.
It was because the student travelers usually travelling by Cathay Pacific
Airways were during the public holiday such as summer holiday or Christmas.
It was known as the peak season of airline industry. During this period, the
airline needed to pay attention on handling such large amount of passengers
and it made a heavy pressure on the operation sector. So that it was hard to
demand Cathay Pacific Airways to pay attention on every individual needs.
On the other hand, the student travelers who were always having less travel
experience or they were too young to travel to foreign countries individually,
they might feel depress if the airline could not provide any assistance. That
was why the student travelers gave relatively low score in these two attributes.
60
Table 4.11 Passengers perception differences by occupation (ANOVA)
Attribute Mean F-
Sig.
level1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 value
(N=10) (N=13) (N=14) (N=15) (N=14) (N=0) (N=0) (N=2) (N=19) (N=19)
Up to date aircrafts and
in-flight facilities
4.1 4 4 3.87 4.21 NIL NIL 4 3.68 4.08 0.703 0.669
Physical facilities are visually
appealing
3.9 3.85 3.71 3.93 4 NIL NIL 4 3.79 3.69 0.295 0.954
Employees appear neat 4.1 3.69 4.21 4 4.43 NIL NIL 4.5 3.74 3.92 1.985 0.065
The aircraft has clean and
comfortable interiors and
seats
4.2 3.77 3.86 3.8 3.86 NIL NIL 3.5 3.89 4 0.504 0.83
When Cathay Pacific
Airways promises to do
something by a certain time,
they will do so
4.3 3.46 3.86 3.73 4.14 NIL NIL 3.5 3.53 3.62 1.947 0.071
When a customer has a
problem, Cathay Pacific
Airways shows a sincere
interest in solving it
3.9 3.46 3.86 3.8 3.93 NIL NIL 4 3.63 3.23 1.721 0.114
Cathay Pacific Airways is
dependable
4.3 3.92 3.93 3.8 3.93 NIL NIL 4 3.89 4.08 0.392 0.905
Maintains a punctual flying
schedule
3.9 3.54 4 3.8 4 NIL NIL 3.5 3.74 3.46 1.179 0.322
Ensures safety of flying 4.1 4.23 4 4.4 4.29 NIL NIL 4 4.11 4.08 0.404 0.898
Employees of Cathay Pacific
Airways tell its customers
exactly when services will be
performed
4.1 3.31 3.43 3.33 3.64 NIL NIL 3.5 3.53 3.38 1.379 0.224
Employees of Cathay Pacific
Airways give prompt service
to customers
3.8 3.31 3.79 3.27 3.79 NIL NIL 3.5 3.53 3.46 1.26 0.279
Employees of Cathay Pacific
Airways are always willing to
help customers
4.1 3.46 4 3.47 3.93 NIL NIL 4.5 3.89 3.69 2.028 0.06
Employees of Cathay Pacific
Airways are never too busy
to respond to customer
3.7 3.08 3.64 3.13 3.21 NIL NIL 4 3.32 3.15 1.942 0.072
61
requests
You can trust employees of
Cat