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INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH IN BUSINESS

COPY RIGHT © 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 335

JANUARY 2014

VOL 5, NO 9

Customer Services in Saudi Arabian Airlines: A Case Study of Jazan

Province

Dr. Ali. Mohammad AL-Medabesh

Assistant Professor and Dean

Community College, Jazan University

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Dr. Mohammed Maqsood Ali (Corresponding Author)

Assistant Professor, Dept. of Marketing

Community College, Jazan University

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Customers travel by airlines that provide better services. Customer services are an important

part of a flight reservation, boarding, food & beverages, in-flight entertainment and cabin

crew’s job. The aim of this study is to evaluate experiences of vacation travellers as well as

investigates their levels of satisfaction towards Saudi airline’s services. The scope of this

study consists of teaching staff working under Jazan University, Jazan province, Kingdom of

Saudi Arabia. The data were collected by administering a structured questionnaire which was

put at the front of seats monitor of Saudi Aircraft. The findings of this study revealed that

customers are satisfied with the reservation, boarding, cabin crew, food & beverages, and in-

flight entertainment services. This study benefits to the managers of airlines industries to

prepare strategies for delighting passengers towards various services.

Keywords: Reservation, Boarding, Cabin Crew, Food & Beverages, In-flight Entertainment

1. INTRODUCTION

There is a fierce competition among airlines. Customer service is considered as the most

important part of services offered by airlines. Hynes and Dredge (1998) defined customer

services as “the way in which an organisation handles the interaction between itself and its

customers.” Srinivasan (2004) stated service quality as an attitude formed by a long-term

overall evaluation of a firm’s performance. Excellent customer services can be achieved by

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training employees, even those who do not have direct contact with customers. The service

encounters are extremely important because they are directly in contact with the customers

face to face. The interaction between customers and employees is referred as Service

Encounter (Brink and Berndt, 2008). Pakdil and Aydin (2007) emphasised the understanding

of customers’ needs and expectations.

Chang and Chen (2012) examined the perceptions and satisfaction with air transportation

services of elderly air passengers at Taiwan Taiyuan international Airport and found that the

performance of service attributes such as meals, information announcements and on-board

rest rooms do not meet the respondents’ expectations. Quality service means providing the

right level of service to meet customer needs (Hynes and Dredge, 1998).

Chou et al. (2011) carried out airline service quality evaluation using the weighted

SERVQUAL method in a Taiwanese airline case and found that reliability and assurance are

the first important dimensions, responsiveness is the second and empathy is the third followed

by tangibles and flight pattern. Furthermore, dimensions of services include safety, customer

complaint handling, courtesy of crew, on-time departure and arrival, comfort and cleanliness

of seat. Timeliness, flexibility, friendliness, honesty, expectations, quality, problems, values

are ingredients of customer services (Hynes and Dredge, 1998). In a similar study, Pakdil and

Aydin (2007) measure airline service quality based on data collected at a Turkish airline using

SERVQUAL scores weighted by loadings derived from factor analysis. The results show that

responsiveness is the most important while availability is the least important element of

quality. In addition, passengers’ educational level is an important variable affecting their

expectations and perceptions.

Forgas et al. (2010) identifies the antecedents of airline user loyalty and found that the

principal antecedent of co-native loyalty is effective loyalty. Satisfaction and trust are

effective loyalty that guarantees the success of relationship between the airlines and its users.

He emphasised the importance of emotional value that airlines may need to take all

interactions between the customer and company’s’ contact personnel and equipment. Jager et

al. (2012) carried out a study on emerging service factors such as cabin service scape,

timeliness of flight, country of origin of airline, convenience of booking, cabin service scape,

special offers and freebies. They found that timeliness of flight, cabin crew, and convenience

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booking rated the most important dimensions of service factors. In addition, country of origin

is less important to the passengers.

Gilbert and Wong (2003) carried out a study on service quality dimensions such as reliability,

assurance, facilities, employees, flight patterns, customisation and responsiveness to compare

the differences in passengers’ expectations to the actual perceived airline service quality. The

results revealed that passengers consider assurance as the important service dimension. Jou

(2008) studied the effect of service quality and price on international airline competition and

found that safety, convenience and service quality have a major influence on the choice

decision of air passengers. Furthermore, this study suggests that passengers demand decrease

in price, increased safety, services comprehensiveness and increase in convenience. Park

(2007) investigates air passengers’ perception of service quality and found that passengers’

perceptions are significantly different across airlines, seat classes and usage frequencies.

Wang et al. (2011) determines nine evaluation criteria of service quality in the airline

companies and found that passengers are more concern with comfort, internal decoration and

services of airline companies. In addition, on-time flights, ticket prices and schedules are

important evaluation criteria. Chen and Chang (2005) pointed out that responsiveness and

assurance dimensions are more concerned to the passengers from the frontline staff of airline

companies. Yang et al. (2012) investigates relationship between service quality, airline image,

customer value and behavioural intentions for passengers to fly on low cost carriers and found

that service quality has significant positive effect on customer value, airline image and

behavioural intentions. Yeh (2012) in a study aimed at relationships among service climate,

psychological contract, work engagement and service performance. He found that relational

psychological contracts have a positive influence on work engagement while work

engagement and service climate have a positive influence on service performance.

Part et al. (2004) studied air passengers’ decision-making processes considering key variables

include service expectations, service perception, service value, passenger satisfaction, airline

image and behavioural intentions. They found that service value, passenger satisfaction and

airline image have direct effect on air passengers’ decision-making process.

Chang and Chen (2007) aimed at switching barriers and customers’ loyalty stemming from

customer relational benefits. They pointed out that social benefits and customer loyalty

influence on switching barriers. Nikbin et al. (2012) carried out an empirical study on

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customer satisfaction and switching intention and found that customer satisfaction is

negatively related to switching intention.

Airlines provide cabin safety information cards. Cabin crew demonstrate safety information

and help passengers in an emergency. Cabin crew are more important than the food and

entertainment offered by the airlines (Jager et al., 2012). Chang (2012) studied the differences

in cabin safety behavioural intentions among passengers with reduced mobility and regular

passengers in the case of an incident. He found that passengers have a positive attitude

towards cabin safety behaviour. Furthermore, he suggested that “passengers with reduced

mobility may be in a high risk factor for cabin safety.” Convenient booking and offering

booking facilities via internet are the most important dimensions of service factors (Jger et al.,

2012).

The above literature provides gaps to evaluate services of airlines industry such as

reservation, boarding, cabin crew, food & beverages and in-flight entertainment services.

Therefore, this study evaluates experiences of vacation travellers, particularly teaching staff

working under Jazan University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

2. IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY

Passengers prefer to travel by those airlines which offer better services to them. They expect

better services and seek satisfaction with not only reservation service but also boarding, cabin

crew and food & beverages services. In the era of digital, passengers expect better services of

in-flight entertainment.

All of us may agree that passenger book the tickets either from travel agents or airline offices.

They expect services like easy reservation either online or offline, less waiting time, good

response from ticketing staff and many other services. Once the ticket is purchased,

passengers board the aircraft based on the boarding pass. Boarding starts with entering the

aircraft and ends with the seating of each passenger. Cabin crew stay at the door of aircraft to

extend warm welcome to passengers and helps them to locate their seats. Passengers expect

services like ease in getting boarding pass, want to avoid long waiting queue, good response

from the check-in at counter.

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Airline companies offer food and beverages to their passengers. While few companies serve it

on payment of money in the aircraft and many companies offer it free of cost. Customers are

very keen and conscious about food and beverages provided by the airline companies. They

expect tasty food, fresh food, healthy food, variety of foods, and provide breakfast, lunch or

dinner on time.

Furthermore, Cabin crew is the backbone of the business of airlines. Passengers expect

cordial welcome from cabin crews, good response, help in locating seats and luggage, provide

blankets and cleanliness of cabin. They also expect cabin quietness, temperature on ground or

during fly and cleanliness. However, passengers expect better services such as reservation,

boarding, cabin crew, food and beverages and in-flight entertainment. Therefore, there is a

need to investigate their expectations and satisfaction levels with all the services.

3. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The following are the objectives of this study.

1 To measure experiences of vacation travellers towards reservation, boarding, cabin crew,

food & beverages and in-flight entertainment services.

2 To investigate satisfaction levels of vacation travellers towards reservation, boarding,

cabin crew, food & beverages and in-flight entertainment services.

3 To examine relationship between number of trips and satisfaction levels with reservation,

boarding, cabin crew, food & beverages and in-flight entertainment services.

4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The present study is an attempt to examine services that are expected by the passengers of

Saudi airlines. Vacation travellers, particularly teaching staff working under Jazan University,

were approached for eliciting information. Convenient sampling technique has been adopted.

Out of 125 questionnaires, 100 questionnaires were collected. The response rate was 80 per

cents. A structured questionnaire that is put at the front section of Saudi aircraft was

distributed among the vacation travellers. Slight modifications in the wording of scale item

were made to make the questionnaire understandable to the surveyed respondents. All the

scale items were obtained on a 5 point Likert scale ranging from (5) for “Excellent”, to (1) for

“Very Poor” and (5) for "Very Satisfied” and (1) for “Very Dissatisfied".

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A questionnaire consists of seven sections. Section 1 includes questions relating to flight type,

class and travel partners and number of trips. Questions relating to reservation services are put

in section 2 while questions with regard to boarding and cabin crew services are in section 3

and 4 respectively. Section 5 and 6 includes questions relating to food & beverages and in-

flight entertainment. Finally, section 7 includes questions of demographic profile of

respondents such as gender, age, income, qualification and marital status.

Since the data is descriptive in nature, chi-square test has been applied to test an association

between demographic profiles of respondents with the services offer by Saudi Arabian

Airlines. Furthermore, Spearman's Coefficient Correlation is calculated to know any

relationship for closely related questions in the questionnaire. In addition, arithmetic mean

and standard deviation is calculated to examine which services passengers are satisfied and

ranked the highest. The SPSS 17.0 (Software Packages for Social Sciences) software is used

to apply Chi-square and Spearman’s Coefficient Correlation tests.

5. RESULTS AND DISCUSIONS

The data were analysed by using SPSS 17.0 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences)

software. Chi-square test is used to examine an association between demographic profile of

respondents and their satisfaction levels with reservation, boarding, cabin crew, food &

beverages and in-flight entertainment. Spearman's’ Coefficient Correlation is also calculation

for the variables that are closely related to each other in the questionnaire. Furthermore,

frequency distribution tables and cross tabulation is prepared to analyse the data. The results

of the study are discussed in this section.

5.1 Demographic Analysis

Table I reveals the demographic profiles of sample respondents. Out of 100 vacation

travellers, 67% are male and 33% are female. Majority of vacation travellers are in the age

group of 31 to 40 years, followed by 21-30 years and few are in the age group of 41-50 years

and 51- 60 years. Income of 38 travellers is between 6001 to 8000 SAR while 26 travellers’

income is between 4001 and 6000. 18 travellers’ income is between 8001 and 10000 whereas

income of 14 travellers is more than 10000 SAR. Majority of travellers hold masters degree

followed by PhD and Bachelors degree. Out of 100 travellers, 90 are married and the rest are

singles.

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Table I

Respondents’ Demographic Profile

Profile Characteristics n %

Gender Male 67 67

Female 33 33

Total 100 100

Age

< 21 00 00

21-30 22 22

31-40 60 60

41-50 11 11

51-60 07 07

>60 00 00

Total 100 100

Income (Saudi

Arabian Riyals)

<4000 04 04

4001-6000 26 26

6001-8000 38 38

8001-10000 18 18

>10000 14 14

Total 100 100

Qualifications

Diploma 00 00

Bachelors 05 05

Masters 82 82

PhDs 13 13

Total 100 100

Marital Status

Single 10 10

Married 90 90

Total 100 100

5.2 Travel Companions

Passengers often travel with family members, spouse, friends and individual. A question was

asked to know with whom they travel. The results are presented in the table II below. It is

interesting to note that majority travel with family followed by individual, spouse and few

travel alone.

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Table II

Travel Partner

Characteristics Frequency Percentages

Spouse 10 10

Family 66 66

Friends 06 06

Individual 18 18

Total 100 100

5.3 Number of Trips

All of us will agree that a passenger get experience only after making number of trips. Table

III presents the result of respondents towards number of trips. It indicates that 26% of

passengers have travelled three to five times while 20% of passengers travelled less than two.

It is also noted that 19% of passengers have made trips between six and eight. Furthermore,

17% and 18% of passengers have travelled maximum number of times respectively.

Table III

Number of Trips

Characteristics Frequency Percentages

< 2 20 20

3-5 26 26

6-8 19 19

9-11 17 17

> 12 18 18

Total 100 100

5.4 Satisfaction Levels with Cabin Crew Services

The individuals who work in the passenger’s area of aircraft are known as cabin crew.

Stewardess, Flight Attendants or Air Hostess are other names of cabin crew. These positions

are mostly held by female. They provide better customer services to the passengers and

ensure that they have pleasant travelling experiences. Table IV provides satisfaction levels of

sample respondents. Chi-square test has been applied to examine demographic profiles of

respondents and their satisfaction levels towards cabin crew services.

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TABLE IV

Composition of Demographic Profile of Respondents and Satisfaction Levels towards

Cabin Crew Services

Demographic Profile Satisfaction Levels Total Chi-

Square

Value

df Asymp.

Sig. VS S UN DS VD

Gender Male 05 42 08 10 02 67

4.811

4

0.307 Female 07 15 05 05 01 33

Total 12 57 13 15 03 100

Age

< 21 00 00 00 00 00 00

9.180

12

0.688

21-30 05 12 02 03 03 25

31-40 05 35 09 08 00 57

41-50 02 05 02 02 00 11

51-60 00 05 00 02 00 07

>60 00 00 00 00 00 00

Total 12 57 13 15 03 100

Income

<4000 01 01 02 00 00 04

16.76

16

0.401

4001-6000 05 13 01 06 01 26

6001-8000 04 23 03 06 02 38

8001-10000 01 11 04 02 00 18

>10000 01 09 03 01 00 14

Total 12 57 13 15 03 100

Qualification

Diploma 00 01 00 00 00 01

10.078

12

0.609

Bachelors 00 01 02 01 00 04

Masters 11 45 11 12 03 82

PhDs 01 10 00 02 00 13

Total 12 57 13 15 03 100

Marital

Status

Single 02 07 00 01 00 10

2.885

4

0.577 Married 10 50 13 14 03 90

Total 12 57 13 15 03 100

VD-Very Dissatisfied, DS-Dissatisfied, UN-Undecided, S-Satisfied, VS-Very Satisfied

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5.4.1 Gender and Levels of Satisfaction

Null Hypothesis: No significant difference between the gender of sample respondents and

their levels of satisfaction towards airline’s cabin crew services.

Chi-square test has been applied to find an association between the gender and levels of

satisfaction towards airline’s cabin crew services. The result indicates that chi-square value

(0.307) is greater than 0.05 at five percent level of significance for four degree of freedom and

hence the null hypothesis is accepted. Therefore, there is no association between the gender

and levels of satisfaction towards airline cabin crew services.

5.4.2 Age and Levels of Satisfaction

Null Hypothesis: No significant difference between the age of the respondents and their

levels of satisfaction towards airline’s cabin crew services.

To test the above null hypothesis, a chi-square test has been applied. It is found that calculated

value of chi-square (0.688) is greater than 0.05 at five percent level of significance for twelve

degree of freedom. It is interpreted that the null hypothesis is accepted. Therefore, there is no

association between age of sample respondents and their levels of satisfaction towards cabin

crew services.

5.4.3 Income and Levels of Satisfaction

Null Hypothesis: No significant difference between income of sample respondents and their

levels of satisfaction towards airline’s cabin crew services.

Chi-square test has been applied to find an association between income and levels of

satisfaction towards airline’s cabin crew services. The results indicate that calculated Chi-

square value (0.401) is greater than 0.05 at five percent level of significant for sixteen degree

of freedom and hence the null hypothesis is accepted. Therefore, levels of satisfaction are not

associated with income of sample respondents towards airline cabin crew services.

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5.4.4 Qualification and Levels of Satisfaction

Null Hypothesis: No significant difference between qualification of sample respondents and


Chi-square test has been applied to find an association between qualification and levels of

satisfaction towards airline’s cabin crew services. The result indicates that calculated chi-

square value (0.609) is greater than 0.05 at five percent level of significance for twelve degree

of freedom and hence the null hypothesis is accepted. Therefore, levels of satisfaction are not

associated with qualification of sample respondents towards airline cabin crew services.

5.4.5 Marital Status and Levels of Satisfaction

Null Hypothesis: No significant difference between marital status of sample respondents and


To test the above null hypothesis, a chi-square test has been applied. It is found that calculated

value of chi-square (0.579) is greater than 0.05 at five percent level of significance for sixteen

degree of freedom. It is interpreted that the null hypothesis is accepted. Therefore, levels of

satisfaction are not associated with marital status of sample respondents towards cabin crew

services.

5.5 Satisfaction Levels of Travellers travelling with Companions

Passengers often travel with family members, spouse, friends and individual. They may

satisfy or may not satisfy travelling with spouse, family, or friends. But it important to

measure levels of satisfaction if they travel with spouse, family or friends. Cross tabulation is

prepared to examine who are satisfied with the flight’s services.

Result of table V shows that passengers who travelled with family members are satisfied with

reservations services followed by individual, spouse and friends. It is noted that passengers

who travelled with their family members are satisfied with boarding services followed by

individual, friends and spouse.

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Table V

Levels of Satisfaction with regard to travel companions

Services Travel

Companions

Satisfaction levels Total

VS S UN DS VD

Reservation

Spouse 00 05 05 00 00 10

Family 07 38 14 07 00 66

Friends 00 04 01 01 00 06

Individual 00 12 04 02 00 18

Total 07 59 24 10 00 100

Boarding

Spouse 01 03 02 04 00 10

Family 06 44 08 07 01 66

Friends 01 03 01 00 01 06

Individual 02 11 04 01 00 18

Total 10 61 15 12 02 100

Cabin Crew

Spouse 01 05 01 03 00 10

Family 07 37 09 11 02 66

Friends 02 03 01 00 00 06

Individual 02 12 02 01 01 18

Total 12 57 13 15 03 100

Food and Beverages

Spouse 00 08 01 01 00 10

Family 04 44 09 08 01 66

Friends 01 03 00 01 01 06

Individual 01 14 01 02 00 18

Total 06 69 11 12 02 100

In-flight Entertainment

Spouse 01 05 03 01 00 10

Family 05 36 16 06 03 66

Friends 00 04 02 00 00 06

Individual 02 11 02 03 00 18

Total 08 56 23 10 03 100


The researchers were interested to know who are satisfied with food & beverages services It is

revealed that passengers who travelled with family members are satisfied with food and

beverages services.

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Cabin crew are the back bone of flights. They help in locating seats and placing language of

the passengers. The researchers were interested to identify who are satisfied with cabin crew

services. It is found that family members are satisfied with cabin crew services followed by

individuals, spouse and friends. The researchers were also interested to examine the

satisfaction levels with in-flight entertainment services by passengers travelling with family

members, spouse, friends and individuals and found that family members are satisfied with

in-flight entertainment services.

Furthermore, passengers who travelled with family members are satisfied with boarding

services followed by cabin crew, reservation, food & beverages and in-flight entertainment

services. Passengers who travelled with friends are satisfied with in-flight entertainment and

reservation followed by cabin crew, boarding and food and beverages. In addition, spouses

are satisfied with food and beverages services followed by cabin crew, in-flight entertainment,

reservation and boarding services. It is also noted that individuals are satisfied with cabin

crew services on one hand. On the other hand, satisfied with food and beverages, in-flight

entertainment and boarding services.

5.6 Descriptive Statistics of Service Levels

Table VI shows the descriptive statistic of service relating to reservation, boarding and cabin

crew. The arithmetic mean and standard deviation is also calculated to measure the service

levels which the passengers mostly rated. The range of arithmetic mean and standard

deviation is between 2.98 and 3.67. The higher mean indicates that the services of reservation,

boarding and cabin crew are excellent while lower mean shows the services are very poor. It

is noted that cleanliness service is the excellent while rest room cleanliness is ranked last.

However, cabin temperature during flight is ranked second followed by cabin temperature on

ground. The result also indicates that cabin crew who are the back bone of service is ranked

fourth. Furthermore, behaviour and efficiency of ticketing staff is average while obtaining

boarding pass is easy and services at check-in counter is not efficient.

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Table VI

Descriptive Statistics of Service Levels

Services Levels of Services MEAN S.D

VP P A G E

TICKETING STAFF ATTITUDE

Efficiency of Ticketing staff 05 13 46 22 14 3.27 1.024

Behaviour of Ticketing staff 03 11 46 28 12 3.35 0.936

BOARDING SERVICES

Ease of obtaining boarding pass 07 14 39 26 14 3.26 1.088

Efficiency of Check-in at the Counter 06 22 39 22 11 3.10 1.059

CABIN CREW SERVICES

Cordial welcome by in-flight crew 07 18 27 24 24 3.40 1.231

Efficiency of in-flight service crew 07 17 39 19 18 3.24 1.147

Attitude of in-flight services crew 05 18 35 25 17 3.31 1.107

Cabin Cleanliness 02 11 25 42 20 3.67 0.985

Cabin Quietness 05 17 35 32 11 3.27 1.033

Cabin Temperature on Ground 04 12 29 37 18 3.53 1.049

Cabin Temperature during flight 04 11 25 41 19 3.60 1.044

Seat are comfort 08 11 46 18 17 3.25 1.114

Provide pillows and Blankets 08 17 33 26 16 3.25 1.158

Sky Sales on Board 04 22 33 28 13 3.24 1.065

Rest room Cleanliness 10 24 34 22 10 2.98 1.128

E-Excellent, G-Good, A-Average, P-Poor, VP-Very Poor

5.7 Satisfaction Levels with Number of Trips

Table VIII indicates that passengers who travelled between one and five times are satisfied. It

is interesting to note that passengers who make more trips are less satisfied than passengers

who travelled between one and five times. Passengers who travelled less number of times are

satisfied with reservation services as well as boarding services compared to passengers who

travelled more number of times and very few are dissatisfied.

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Table VII

Levels of Satisfaction and Number of Trips

Services No. of Trips Satisfaction Levels Total

VS S UN DS VD

Reservation

<2 00 14 02 04 00 20

3-5 02 16 07 01 00 26

6-8 03 09 05 02 00 19

9-11 01 12 04 00 00 17

>12 01 08 06 03 00 18

Total 07 59 24 10 00 100

Boarding

<2 01 15 02 02 00 20

3-5 03 19 03 01 00 26

6-8 02 08 04 04 01 19

9-11 02 06 04 04 01 17

>12 02 13 02 01 00 18

Total 10 61 15 12 02 100

Cabin Crew

<2 04 10 01 05 00 20

3-5 02 17 04 02 01 26

6-8 01 10 04 04 00 19

9-11 03 09 02 03 00 17

>12 02 11 02 01 02 18

Total 12 57 13 15 03 100

Food and

Beverages

<2 03 15 00 02 00 20

3-5 01 17 04 04 00 26

6-8 01 13 04 01 00 19

9-11 00 13 02 01 01 17

>12 01 11 01 04 01 18

Total 06 69 11 12 02 100

In-flight

Entertainment

<2 01 11 02 05 01 20

3-5 03 15 06 01 01 26

6-8 01 11 05 02 00 19

9-11 01 10 05 01 00 17

>12 02 09 05 01 01 18

Total 08 56 23 10 03 100


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5.8 Correlation Analysis

The data is measured by Spearman Coefficient of Correlation because the data is non-

parametric and some questions are closely related with other questions in the questionnaire.

SPSS 17.0 was used to find the relationship between two questions.

5.8.1 Correlation between Ticketing and Check-In Staff Efficiency

The results of Table VIII reveal that there is a strong positive relationship between efficiency

of ticketing staff and check-in at counter staff. It is interesting to note that passengers who are

satisfied with ticketing staff are also satisfied with check-in at counter staff.

Table VIII

Correlation between ticketing and check-in staff efficiency

Correlation (1) (2)

Spearman’s rho

(1) Correlation Coefficient 1.000 0.306**

Sig. (2-tailed) 0.002

N 100 100

(2) Correlation Coefficient 0.306** 1.000


N 100 100

(1) Efficiency of Ticketing Staff (2) Efficiency of Check-in at counter

**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)

5.8.2 Correlation between Efficiency of Ticketing Staff and Cabin Crew

Spearman Coefficient correlation was applied to test whether there is a relationship between

the efficiency of ticketing staff and cabin crew. The results in the table IX show that there is a

relationship between them. It is interpreted that passengers, who are satisfied with ticketing

staff services, are also satisfied with cabin crew services.

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Table IX

Correlation between ticketing and cabin crew efficiency

Correlation (1) (2)

Spearman’s rho

(1) Correlation Coefficient 1.000 0.253*


N 100 100

(2) Correlation Coefficient 0.253* 1.000


N 100 100

(1) Efficiency of Ticketing Staff (2) Efficiency of Cabin Crew

*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

5.8.3 Correlation between Cabin Crew and Check-In Staff Efficiency

Table X indicates that the correlation is not significant which means passengers who are

satisfied with cabin crew services do not expect better services from check-in at counter. The

correlation was calculated with the help of SPSS 17.0 to study whether there is a relationship

between the services of cabin crew and check-in at counter.

Table X

Correlation between cabin crew and check-in staff efficiency

Correlation (1) (2)

Spearman’s rho

(1) Correlation Coefficient 1 0.196


N 100 100

(2) Correlation Coefficient 0.196 1


N 100 100

(1) Efficiency of Cabin Crew (2) Efficiency at check-in Counter

Correlation is not significant

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5.8.4 Correlation between Ticketing and Cabin Crew Behaviour

The variables behaviour of ticketing staff and cabin crew are found closely related and hence

Spearman's Coefficient of Correlation is applied to test whether is an association or not. The

results in the table XI shows that the correlation is significant at the 0.05 level which means

passengers are satisfied with the behaviour of ticketing staff and cabin crew.

Table XI

Correlation between ticketing and cabin crew behaviour

Correlation (1) (2)

Spearman’s rho

(1) Correlation Coefficient 1.000 0.202*


N 100 100

(2) Correlation Coefficient 0.202* 1.000


N 100 100

(1) Behaviour of Ticketing Staff (2) Behaviour of Cabin Crew

*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

5.8.5 Correlation between Cabin Cleanliness and Rest room Cleanliness

All are agreed that passengers expect both cabin and rest room cleanliness. To find out any

relationship between these two variable, Spearman's coefficient correlation is applied and the

result is presented in the table XII. It is interesting to note that correlation is significant at 0.01

levels which means passengers who are satisfied with cabin cleanliness are also satisfied with

rest room cleanliness.

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Table XII

Correlation between cabins and rest room cleanliness

Correlation (1) (2)

Spearman’s rho

(1) Correlation Coefficient 1.000 0.414**


N 100 100

(2) Correlation Coefficient 0.414** 1.000


N 100 100

(1) Cabin cleanliness (2) Rest room Cleanliness

**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)

5.9 Satisfaction Levels with Various Services

Table XIII shows the result of descriptive statistics of satisfaction levels with reservation,

boarding, cabin crew, food & beverages and in-flight entertainment services. The arithmetic

mean and standard deviation of all services are in the range of 2.35 and 2.44. The range is

calculated to know which service satisfied the passengers. The result indicates that passengers

are satisfied with all the services. In-flight Entertainment is ranked first by the passengers

followed by cabin crew, reservation, boarding and food and beverages services.

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Table XIII

Descriptive Statistics of Satisfaction Levels

Services Satisfaction Levels MEAN SD

VS S UN DS VD

Reservation 07 59 24 10 00 2.37 0.761

Boarding 10 61 15 12 02 2.35 0.892

Cabin crew 12 57 13 15 03 2.40 0.985

Food and Beverages 06 69 11 12 02 2.35 0.845

In-flight Entertainment 08 56 23 10 03 2.44 0.891


5.10 Conclusions

Every airlines offer various services such as reservation, boarding, cabin crew, food &

beverages and in-flight entertainment services to their passengers. This study identified the

satisfaction levels of vacation traveller, particularly teaching staff in the Kingdom of Saudi

Arabia towards services of Saudi Arabian Airlines. It is found that majority of passengers are

satisfied with services mostly with cabin crew services. Furthermore, chi-square test has been

applied to measure an association between demographic profiles of respondents and levels of

satisfaction towards cabin crew services. It is found that there is no association between

gender, age, income, qualification and marital status with levels of satisfactions with cabin

crew services.

Furthermore, cross tabulation was prepared to examine levels of satisfaction from travelling

with spouse, family, friend and alone towards various services and it is found that passengers

who travelled with family members are very satisfied with boarding services followed cabin

crew, reservation, food & beverages and in-flight entertainment services. It is interesting to

note that passengers who travelled alone are satisfied with cabin crew services while spouse

are satisfied with in-flight entertainment services.

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5.11 Managerial Implications

Managers are fully aware that service is the backbone of the airline business. Better the

services are provided better the profits are obtained. They need to examine which segment

expects which services. For instants, spouse are interested in in-flight entertainment, family

members are interested in food & beverages, friends need better reservation services and

passengers who travel alone need cordial welcome from cabin staff. Aviation industry should

not only focus on satisfying passengers’ with reservation services or boarding services but

also need to focus on delighting passengers in reservation, boarding, cabin crew, food &

beverages and in-flight entertainments.

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