مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد رضایت مشتری با کمپانی های کم هزینه (الزویر)

The airline industry was tightly regulated until 1978, when more and more private airlines started to emerge. More recently, there has been a significant rise in the number of private low-cost carriers that emphasize low fares in order to attract passengers (Belobaba, Odoni, & Barnhart, 2015). Airline companies today are faced with various challenges, such as cutting costs, managing fluctuating demand, and meeting the quality requirements (Baker, 2013). In addition to these issues, the intense competition in the global airline industry has intensified the importance of customers’ perception of service quality. Numerous studies demonstrate the dependence of airlines’ market share, revenues, positive word of mouth, and customer retention on the consumer perception of service quality, and in turn, on customer satisfaction and loyalty (e.g., Anderson, Fornell, & Lehmann, 1994; Forgas, Moliner, Sánchez, & Palau, 2010). In these challenging circumstances of increased competition of low-cost and full-service carriers, calls for an in-depth understanding of in-flight cues guiding relationships between passengers and the airline have been voiced (Loureiro & Fialho, 2016). Several differentiating characteristics between the low-cost and full-service carriers can be identified. While low-cost carriers provide no-frills services at a low and simplified regime fare, full-service airlines focus on providing a wide range of preflight and onboard services in different service classes, employing a complex pricing structure (Chiou & Chen, 2010; Loureiro & Fialho, 2016; Reichmuth, 2008). The low-cost airlines operate point-to-point routes mostly from secondary airports (without any connections), whereas the full-service airlines operate a hub-and-spoke model, centered around a set of hubs at primary airports. Cost reduction in the case of low-cost carriers also comes from “free seating”, a high density seating configuration, and selling tickets solely online (Reichmuth, 2008). A further difference is in the intense low-cost airlines’ use of one type of aircraft, while full-service airlines manage multiple types (Baker, 2013). Some smaller airlines are adopting business models that blend characteristics of both airline types, resulting in “hybrid carriers” (Reichmuth, 2008). Many researchers concur that price is the key decisive factor in choosing a low-cost or a full-service carrier (Anuwichanont, 2011; Dolnicar, Grabler, Grün, & Kulnig, 2011; Martínez-Garcia, Ferrer-Rosell, & Coenders, 2012; Ryan & Birks, 2005), but it is not necessarily nor entirely driving customer satisfaction (Forgas et al., 2010). While low-cost airlines attract consumers on the grounds of value for money, retaining and building loyal customer base remains a great challenge (Rajaguru, 2016). Akamavi, Mohamed, Pellmann, and Xu (2015) even suggest that price is not the decisive factor for customer loyalty to the low-cost airlines. Some authors assert that passengers perceive low fares as a result of efficiency in airline operations rather than diminished service standards (Saha & Theingi, 2009).