مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

Airline food. These two words are guaranteed to bring out a heated debate among airline passengers (James, 2010). Price is not the only factor when it comes to choosing an airline. Some passengers pick their carrier because of the comfort of the seats, others prize high standards of service above all else. But there is evidence that, for an increasing number of customers, the quality of in-flight food served may be the deciding factor. Aware of their reputation of serving less than satisfactory food, airlines are reacting by signing up top chefs to reorganize menus (James, 2005), thereby following the example of the haute-cuisine restaurant business, where the Michelin guide star system operates as a signaling device to tell customers that they may trust in their decision-making process (Surlemont and Johnson, 2006, p. 577). However, according to the French food critic François Simon, this heavily stylized Michelincuisine is outmoded: “For me it is something from another century. It goes back to a time when everybody was obeying rules and the bourgeoisie. [ … ] Today people consider the table a place where they want to feel at ease [ … ] But not these very serious dishes and all those boring things” (Boxell, 2011). This study now questions for the airline industry, if following the haute-cuisine approach is the most promising way for increasing passengers’ satisfaction with in- flight food?

The airline industry is part of the international service sector and characterized by a small number of high-value customer transactions (Bejou and Palmer, 1998, p. 7). Growth in the tourism industry in general and in the airline industry in particular creates opportunities as well as challenges for businesses trying to understand their target groups (de Ruyter et al., 1998, p. 189). For formulating a service firm’s marketing strategy, knowing a customer’s evaluation of service quality and expression of satisfaction is a critical input (e.g., Ofir and Simonson, 2007, p. 164; Szymanski and Henard, 2001, p. 16; Zins, 2001, p. 271). Studies show an especially significant relationship between service quality and retained preference for services firms that operate in global markets (e.g., Ostrowski et al., 1993, p. 16; Park et al., 2004, p. 438). Given the intensive rivalry in the transport industry and its low switching barriers, a focus on customer satisfaction, loyalty, and recommendation intention is even more important (Akamavi et al., 2015, p. 528; Fornell, 1992): “Loyal passengers are essential to any successful airline” (Akamavi et al., 2015, p. 540).

This study scrutinizes feedback from N ¼ ۳۹۹۶ airline passengers of Aeroflot, AirAsia, British Airways, Condor, China Southern, Emirates, Etihad, Germanwings, Indigo, Jet Airways, KLM, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, and WestJet. It relates perceivedcustomer feedback on in-flight food quality to an airplane’s service environment, which is made up of cabin staff service, entertainment, and seat quality. Both a pan-airline analysis on the entire dataset (N ¼ ۳۹۹۶), as well as an ecological analysis at the aggregated inter-airline level and class of travel (S ¼ ۲۳) are conducted. In order to understand how airlines can best increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, we ask the question, “Should airlines rather improve the quality of their in-flight food offerings, or focus on improving the overall service environment? Which components of the service environment contribute the most to perceived food quality?”