To read this content please select one of the options below:

Airline passengers’ perceptions of service quality: themes in online reviews

Ana Brochado (Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Dinamia, Lisboa, Portugal)
Paulo Rita (NOVA Information Management School (NOVA IMS), Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal)
Cristina Oliveira (Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), ISTAR-IUL, Lisboa, Portugal)
Fernando Oliveira (Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Lisboa, Portugal)

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

ISSN: 0959-6119

Article publication date: 13 February 2019

Issue publication date: 15 February 2019

3902

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to identify the main themes shared in online reviews by airline travellers, as well as which of these themes were linked with higher and lower value for money ratings.

Design/methodology/approach

The research used mixed content analyses (i.e. quantitative and qualitative) to examine 1,200 reviews of six airline companies shared by airline travellers in a social media platform.

Findings

The analyses revealed nine themes in descriptions of airline travel experiences. These are the core services during “flights”, “airport” operations, crew and ground “staff”, ticket “classes”, “seats”, inflight “services”, “entertainment”, overall experiences of “airlines” and post-purchase recommendations of with which companies to “fly”. Low value for money ratings are linked with the “airport” and “flights” themes.

Originality/value

The results offer useful insights into airline travellers’ overall experiences based on social media information and facilitate the identification of the main themes linked with different value for money ratings.

Keywords

Citation

Brochado, A., Rita, P., Oliveira, C. and Oliveira, F. (2019), "Airline passengers’ perceptions of service quality: themes in online reviews", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 31 No. 2, pp. 855-873. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-09-2017-0572

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles