Passengers' expectations on airlines' services: Design of a stated preference survey and preliminary outcomes

As the competition between airlines grows, their customer-centered strategies are becoming increasingly popular. In this context, the marketing strategies are the result of investigations carried out directly on users, usually through the Customer Satisfaction Surveys. Investigating on airline passengers' preferences represents a useful action to pursue the most convenient strategy for increasing their satisfaction and improving the provided service. With this aim, we propose the design of a Stated Preference survey and the preliminary outcomes obtained from the analysis and modelling of the collected data. A deep study of the literature review drove us to consider the land services separately from the air ones. Even if the travel experience of an airline passenger starts at the airport, only the services provided by the airlines are the object of this study. The Stated Preference survey was designed with the aim to capture the passengers' desires on airlines' services by proposing hypothetical scenarios to them. The survey was addressed to the whole population of the University of Calabria (Italy). A sample of 1907 survey responses was obtained. For analyzing the collected data, discrete choice models have been calibrated to obtain the weights assigned by users to each service quality aspect included in the experiment.