Volume 4, 2020

Accepting Editor: Clarence Bayne│ Received: April 06,2020│ Revised: June 18 & September 01, 2019│ Accepted: September 27, 2020

Cite as: Latiff, Z. A. A., Ya’akob, N. N., Sohaimi, I.B., Sohaimi, I. B., & Muhamad, N. (2020). Passenger Inten-tions towards Halal Food In Low Cost Carriers: Key Influencing Factors. International Journal of Community Devel-opment & Management Studies, 4, 09-21, Retrieved from: http://ijcdms.org/Volume04/v4p09-21Latiff6151.pdf (CC BY-NC 4.0) This article is licensed to you under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. When you copy and redistribute this paper in full or in part, you need to provide proper attribution to it to ensure that others can later locate this work (and to ensure that others do not accuse you of plagiarism). You may (and we encour-age you to) adapt, remix, transform, and build upon the material for any non-commercial purposes. This license does not permit you to use this material for commercial purposes.

PASSENGER INTENTIONS TOWARDS HALAL FOOD IN LOW COST CARRIERS: KEY INFLUENCING FACTORS

Zul Ariff Abdul Latiff * Faculty Agro Based Industry, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan

zulariff@umk.edu.my

Nurul Nadia Ya’akob Faculty Agro Based Industry, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan

nadiayaakob03@gmail.com

Inan Balkis Sohaimi Faculty Agro Based Industry, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan

intansohaimi@gmail.com

Nursalwani Muhamad Faculty Agro Based Industry, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan

nursalwa91@gmail.com

* Corresponding author

ABSTRACT

Aim/Purpose Low cost airline passengers are sensitive towards value for money. They also have their own preferences and perceptions on what encompasses value. This paper discusses passenger intentions to purchase halal food with a specific ref-erence to Malaysia, which has a majority Muslim population (57%). The pur-pose of this study is to determine the most influential factors that explain pas-senger intentions to purchase halal meals when flying with low cost air-lines.

Background Inflight meals are one of the services being offered by low cost airlines albeit at an additional price. Passengers travelling on LCC flights are required to pay for their meals. The relative importance of food choice and its availability in form-ing passenger satisfaction with low cost carriers is studied and examined. Alt-hough low cost carriers have proven to be a major competitor to full service airlines in Malaysia, halal food availability remains one of the major concerns for passengers flying with low cost airlines.

Methodology A random sample approach was used to select passengers one major air- port located in Kelantan. The passengers were interviewed face-to-face using a struc-tured questionnaire. Factor analysis was applied to explain the factors influenc-ing passenger intentions to purchase halal food during a low cost flight.

Contribution This paper highlights the factors which explain passenger intentions towards purchasing halal food while flying with low cost airlines. In Malaysia, halal food has been gaining popularity not only from a religious perspective but also due to other positive perceptions increasingly being held by the public that halal food

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is a more wholesome, hygienic and quality food choice. Therefore different groups of passengers, of various religious backgrounds are increasingly seeking halal food. Policy makers and airline managers based in the South Asia region traditionally did not place a high priority on halal food, however as halal food is becoming more popular, there is increased awareness on the importance of providing halal food to clientele. There are more efforts to study how providing a halal food service can positively impact passenger satisfaction as well as play a role in determining the behavioral intentions and motivation behind passengers choosing to fly with low cost carriers (LCC).

Findings The findings indicate that attitude, perceived behavioral control and subjective norms have an impact towards passenger intention to purchase halal food on LCC flights. The results of factor analysis indicate that attitude is the major fac-tor towards influencing passenger purchase intentions.

Recommendations for Practitioners

The findings offer meaningful implications for marketing researchers and prac-titioners in the low cost airline industry. It can help airline companies further understand the needs and wants of existing and potential customers. Local and international airlines need to fulfill the needs of their clientele by serving more halal options on flights.

Recommendation for Researchers

Progress has been made in the availability of inflight religious ethnic foods but many important research questions and technical support needs remain.

Impact on Society The research will assist to highlight purchase intention towards halal food and the importance of religious ethnic foods (e.g. halal food in this case) to meet the passenger requirements.

Future Research Future studies can be conducted to explore local and international insights to-wards halal inflight food within a broader geographical areas and locations.

Keywords Passenger intention, low cost carriers (LCC), inflight halal food, purchasing in-tention

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

The low-cost airline concept works to provide customers with air transportation services at the lowest possible price. It is a ‘no-frills’ approach that does not include added-value options such as: in-flight meals, assigned seating, complimentary baggage carriage and many more, although these options are available for a cost. The low-cost strategy is not about adding value for the consumer; instead it is about generating revenue streams for the airline. The low-cost approach by airlines has a long history stretching back to 1949 when the concept of the first successful low-cost carrier, Pacific Southwest Airlines was launched in the United States. Companies based on the low - cost model of Southwest became more common in the early 1970’s (Gittell, 2005). In the last five years, the trend has been adopted by budget airlines across the world (David, 2013). In Malaysia there are several low-cost airlines such as AirAsia, Malindo Air and Firefly. AirAsia began to operate in Malaysia in 2002 with the tagline “Everyone can fly”. The AirAsia brand positioned itself as a provider of “low fares, quality service and dependability” (AirAsia Annual Report, 2009). By 2015, AirAsia was flying to more than 60 destinations and 130 routes across Asia, Europe and Australia. The consum-ers of low-cost airlines frequently encounter situations that cost them higher amounts of money than they expected (Alamdari & Fagan, 2005 ; Alamdari & Fagan, 2017). This is the predominant reason for driving consumers to make complaints about their travel experiences. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), service meals are not required to observe religious

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or personal preferences, and there are no regulations influencing airlines to be abided by religious dietary rules. In Malaysia, halal food is becoming a universal concept not only due to religious dietary rules but also due to a widely held public perception of halal food being a cleaner and more whole-some option. Halal food is no longer a food concept restricted to a particular religious group as it encompasses positive lifestyle aspects, good manufacturing practices (GMP) and hygienic prac-tices (Rezai, Mohamed, Shamsudin, & Chiew, 2010). However, in case of LCCs, the high consumer price of offered inflight food, its low quality and the lack of availability of halal choices may increase passenger reluctance to fly with LCCs. While the demand for inflight halal food is increasing, there has been very little data available on passenger halal food purchasing behaviour and factors influencing passenger choice of food in the Malaysian market. Thus, in the case of inflight halal food, some of the questions to be addressed are:

a) How do external environments influence the purchasing intentions for inflight halal food? b) Does passenger attitude play a significant role in their purchase behaviour? c) What are they motives of passengers to purchase inflight halal food?

Given the questions above, this study intends to explore the underlying factors influencing passenger intention towards purchasing inflight halal food. According to Alam and Mohamed Sayuti (2011), religious belief of Muslims has built a large consumer market. Although, Malaysia is on track to achieve “global halal hub” by 2020, as compared to other countries such as Thailand and Indone-sia, Malaysia’s participation in the halal market is considerably low (Alam & Mohamed Sayuti, 2011). This study intends to discover the relationship between religious beliefs and how they influence pas-senger intention towards purchasing inflight halal food. The findings of this study will explore the most underlying factors influencing passenger intention towards purchasing inflight halal food. This paper, therefore, attempts to assess passenger intention using the Theory of Planned Behav-iour (TPB) in four major airports in Kuala Lumpur, Pinang, Johor and Kelantan.

ARGUMENTATIVE REVIEW

HALAL AND LOW-COST AIRLINE INDUSTRY IN MALAYSIA

Domestic low-cost airlines have helped with the development and the growth of Malaysia’s air travel market. They successfully made travel more affordable and accessible to the masses. (Yeoh, Chan, & Sabah, 2011). In order for airlines to sustain themselves and remain active players in the competitive airline industry, it is important to fulfil and address the customers’ needs. In Malaysia as well as Asia in general, AirAsia pioneered low cost flights which its affordable airfare and assurance build passen-ger intention to choose back the airline for both domestic and international flights (Jiang, 2013). AirAsia was awarded the title of the World’s Best Low-Cost Airline for the 10th successive year as the Best Low-Cost Airline in Europe. The airline service quality is highly affected by the food and drinks that are offered on board. Therefore, it is really important for the industry leaders to understand cus-tomer’s food preferences especially when religious concern plays a key role in choosing the airline. The word halal in the Arabic language and translates to all manners and deeds that are united with the words of Allah and the prophet Muhammad (Abdul Latiff, Ayob, & Halim, 2017). Consuming halal food is one of the expectations Muslims must uphold in order to lead meaningful lives (Nursalwani & Zulariff, 2017). The halal industry is one of the quickest developing enterprises on the planet (La-da, Tanakijal, & Amin, 2009). It is estimated that more than 2 billion Muslims in the world are con-sumers of halal food (Malaysian Investment Development Authority [MIDA], 2011). The growing halal food market has led many countries in the global community to welcome halal food in a positive way (Jamal, 2003). Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (JAKIM) is one of the organizations in Malaysia authorized to manage and control the issuance of halal certificates and labels. In Malaysia, the use of the halal logo is a solid proof of a product following established standards being free from unau-

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thorized elements. In addition, the clean and safety concepts associated with the halal food probably make halal food more popular for all groups of consumers. However, decision-making process for non-Muslims is different from Muslims and includes set of predictors apart from religious back-ground. While the religion might have strongly associated with halal principles, among non-Muslim, their attitude and lifestyle can affect their intention to purchase inflight halal food (Khalek, 2014). Inflight food, as a service quality, seems to be a significant determinant in choosing a low cost carri-er.Once the passengers pays more for full service airlines they expect a premium service. However, for the low cost carriers, expectations of the passengers are comparatively low with regards to get-ting a high quality service. LCC passengers are also willing to pay for some services such as in-flight food especially on long haul flights that exceed 4 hours. Lower price links to low cost carri-ers does not prevent some passengers from expecting good quality services with a reasonable price. Inflight food can be named as of these expectations (Chung & Hung, 2013; Gross & Schroeder, 2007).

INTENTION TO PURCHASE HALAL FOOD

The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) states that a person’s behavioral actions are governed by their behaviour intentions. A behaviour intention has been defined as a person's decision to perform an action or complete a set of goals (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993; Bagozzi, 2010). It has also been used synonymously at times with choices, decisions, and plans (Bagozzi, 2010). Ajzen (1991) men-tions that behaviour intentions comprise three determinants: a person’s attitude towards their own behavior, the norms that guide this behavior and their perceptions of the control they have over their behaviour. However, due to religious influences and doctrine around food safety, hygiene and purity, a person’s behaviour intention towards the purchase of halal food is triggered before the actual purchase. The purchasing intention of an individual refers to their willingness to purchase a product or service (Ajzen, 1985). It can influence the purchase decision of consumers in the fu-ture (Bashir, Bayat, Olutuase, & Abdul Latiff, 2018; Omar, Mat, Imhemed, & Ali, 2012). In fact, consumer purchase intention has been widely studied and measured through previous studies (Bashir et al., 2018; Kumar & Mohd Mokhtar, 2016; Taylor & Todd, 1995). According to Ajzen (1991), purchase intention is the originator of behavior. This can be considered as the mechanism which triggered the readiness and willingness of consumers to perform behavior (Ajzen, 1985). Generally, a consumer’s intention to purchase halal food is strongly influenced by their religion (De-lener, 1994). Late studies reveal that religiosity and education have a direct relation with Muslim awareness of the need to consume halal food (Khalek et al, 2017). Religion is an important point that drives the purchase intention and habit of an individual and also the community especially Muslims (Khalek et al, 2017). Thus, for this study, the religiosity factor is directly influencing the in-tention of the passengers to consume halal food in LCCs as well as taking into account the health and hygiene factors in the food preparation. Other factors that can influence the intention to pur-chase halal food can stem from individual and environmental factors such as marketing information, situation and food specific properties which include product ingredients (Rezai, Mohamed, & Shamsudin, 2012). The external factors roles of information, knowledge and Sharia are very im-portant for Muslims in making their food choice. In the Islamic perspective, product ingredients may cover a few issues that need to be taken into consideration. It includes issues of the consumer’s familiarity on the ingredients and quality as well as safety of the food contents. That is why knowledge of product ingredients is important since the possibility to be accepted or rejected dur-ing decision buying process (Yunus et al, 2014). Previous research studies indicate that the Singa-porean Muslim consumer intention to purchase halal food depends on consumer attitude towards halal food, how peers and relatives influence their action, the way users decide to make decisions, and in terms of consumers’ believe in buying halal food due to religious or moral compliance (Abu-Hussin et al, 2017; Razzaque & Chaudhry, 2013; Swimberghe, Sharma, & Flurry, 2011). Not only is

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consumer level of religiosity important but certain factors such as demographic factors, consumer knowledge, and awareness towards halal certification also play significance role towards consumer intention to choose halal food (Abu-Hussin et al., 2017). With regard to this research, attitude, sub-jective norms and perceived behavioural control show positive relationship that affect the consum-er intention to purchase halal food in Low-Cost Airline. The intention reflects future behaviour (Alam & Mohamed Sayuti, 2011). According to Alam and Mohamed Sayuti (2011), attitudes have described a direct relationship with behaviour intentions of consumer. A study by Bonne et al. (2007), on attitude towards halal meat purchasing in France found that attitude, social norms, and perceived control had significance for intention to consume halal meat. This study expects that pas-senger attitudes toward low cost airlines and these associated subjective norms will have an impact on passengers’ buying intentions to choose LCC over full service flights.

METHODOLOGY

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

This survey was done by using a quantitative method to which the Theory of Planned Behavior was applied. The data was collected from the sample population to determine the attitudes, social norms and perceived behavior control which affects the consumer’s intention towards halal food in low cost airlines in one (1) major airport. The conceptual framework is shown in Figure 1. Attitudes are made up of the beliefs that a person accumulates in their lifetime. Some beliefs are formed from di-rect experience, some are from outside information like religion and others are inferred or self-generated. Subjective norms are formed only in relation to the opinions of persons considered to be significant or important. Intention(s) are the probability, as rated by the subject, that he or she will perform the behavior. Subjective norms assess the social pressure on individuals to perform or not to perform certain behaviors i.e. the motivation to comply with others’ views. In the case of non-Muslim consumers living in a Muslim majority country like Malaysia, socializing with Mus-lim community can be pointed out as a strong motivations and subjective norms to make them aware of the Halal concept. Perceived behavioral control is described as a person’s regulation of behavior. It assesses the degree to which people perceive that they actually have control over enacting the be-havior of interest.

Figure 1: Adapted from TPB model (Sparks & Shepherd, 1992)

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The link between perceived behavioral control and behavior suggests that consumers are more likely to engage in behaviors they feel to have control over and are prevented from carrying out behaviors over which they feel to have no control. Control factors such as perceived availability may facilitate or inhibit the performance of a behavior. For example, the hygiene, clean and safety aspect of halal food along with being widely available can shape non-Muslim consumer perception of their ability to purchase halal food. In the present study, the influence of the classical components of the Theory of Planned Behavior on intention to purchase inflight halal food is measured within a population of passengers in Malaysia.

DATA COLLECTION AND SAMPLING FRAME

A pilot test was performed to test the reliability of the instrument before the questionnaire was dis-tribute to the respondents. The satisfactory level of reliability directly influence by how a measure is being used. The standard related to this measurement is taken from Nunnally (1978). Nunnally sug-gest that the predictor tests or hypothesized measures of a construct, if the reliabilities are or higher 0.70 will be enough. It determines the internal uniformity and the level to which a set of relevant items in the questionnaire is related. It is also said that the rules of thumb of Cronbach’s alpha coef-ficient, alpha value that is more that 0.9 is excellent, 0.8 is good, 0.7 is acceptable, 0.6 is questionable, 0.5 is poor, and less than 0.5 is unacceptable (George & Mallery, 2003). Table 1 shows the results of reliability test of the instrument.

Table 1: Results of the Reliability Test

TPB Construct

Cronbach’s Alpha

No. of Items

Attitude 0.911 8

Subjective Norms 0.743 8

Perceived Behavioral Control 0.914 10

Intention 0.911 8

The pilot test was conducted by 30 completions out of 50 total respondents. A sample size calcula-tion was performed using the Krejci and Morgan’s (2007) sample size calculator as shown in Table 2 with total population 75 and the sample chosen was 63 respondents out of 75 of total population. Table 2 show the selection of sample size using table of determining sample size by Krejcie and Morgan (1970).

Table 2: Krejcie And Morgan’s Sample Size Determination Table

No. of population No. of sample No. of population No. of sample

10 10 60 52

15 14 65 56

20 19 70 59

25 24 75 63

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30 28 80 66

35 32 85 70

40 36 90 73

45 40 95 76

50 44 100 80

55 48 110 86

Source : (Adapted from Krejcie & Morgan, 1970)

A randomized sample of 63 passengers was interviewed via a structured questionnaire in order to gauge the factors influencing their intention to purchase inflight halal food. The questionnaire was divided in two sections and contained straightforward questions. In the first section, respondents’ socioeconomic/demographic characteristics (e.g., age, education, gender, religion, gross household income and employment status) were asked. Since this study targeted all groups of passengers with different religious backgrounds, we argue that halal food consumption decisions within other con-texts such as food safety and cleanliness could differ significantly from purchase situations where these factors do play a key role. Thus, the second section contained the passenger’s attitudes, subjec-tive norms and perceived behavioral controls over inflight halal food purchase intention. The study targeted passengers who travel with LCCs in one major airport in Malaysia. It included a five-point Likert scale (ranging from 1-5) where choice 1 is equivalent to strongly disagree and choice 5 is equivalent to strongly agree. Attitude was measured through statements such as “religious obligation is a major concern of mine when purchasing food products”; “halal food helps to maintain good health”; “purchasing halal guarantees that food products are not contaminated” and “I have high confidence on inflight halal food”. Similarly, the measurement of subjective norms consisted of multiple items such as “since I live in Malaysia, I consume Halal Food”; “my family thinks that halal food is healthier”; “flying with local airlines encourages me to purchase halal food” and “my social cycle encourages me to consume halal food”. The perceived behavioral control was measured by statements (ranging from 1-5) such as “if I want to purchase inflight halal food, I am able to do so”; “halal food is widely available in LCCs” and “I am confident with the halalness of inflight food in LCCS”. The passenger intention was measured by statements such as “I intend to purchase inflight halal food on a regular basis”; “for me it is important to purchase inflight halal food on regu-lar basis” and “I will make an effort to purchase inflight halal food on a regular basis”. Descriptive analysis was performed to transform the raw data into a form that will make easy to understand and interpret. It is used to describe the population study, and it involved measurement such as mean, mode, median, standard deviation and normal distribution. The statistical data regarding simple features of the data in the study such as age, gender, religion and the race of respondents were evaluated. Reliability tests were performed to measure the internal consistency of the data by ex-amining the inter-correlation between various items. Then, the Factor Analysis was used to deter-mine the dominant structure of the variables. Through this, the small numbers of factors from large variables are capable to explain observed variance in the large number of variables. Lastly, Chi-square Analysis method was used to make inferences from the data to more general statements based one experimental or observations from the data collected (Trochim, 2006).

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

To accomplish the objectives of this study, the internal reliability consistency of multiple items of TPB was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha. The Cronbach’s alpha value for “attitude”, “subjective norms” and “perceived behavioral control” was 0.92 that shows there is consistency among TPB components and therefore the model fits for this study. Descriptive analysis was used to discuss the results of the socio-economic profile of the respondents’ such as residential area, gender, race, age, education and income level. The majority of respondents were from urban (68%) and the re-mainder was from suburban areas. About 52% of respondents were male and 58% were married. In terms of race the respondents fell into 4 categories; Malay (46%), Chinese (40%), Indian (12%) and others were about 2%. The majority of passengers interviewed was between 30-45 years old (54%) and educated at tertiary level (72%). As indicated earlier, factor analysis was conducted to un-cover the latent factors underlying passenger intention to purchase inflight halal food. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test of sampling competency and Bartlett’s test were performed on all the statements to confirm the appropriateness of conducting factor analysis (Tabachnick, Barbara, Fi-dell, & Linda, 2007). Table 3 shows the results of Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin and Bartlett’s Test. Regarding the desired values for KMO test, more than 0.5 is considered satisfactory for factor analysis. Low values indicate the diffuse correlations with no substantive groupings (Rezai, Teng, Mohamed, & Shamsudin, 2013; Tabachnick, Barbara, Fidell, & Linda, 2007). Bartlett’s Test was utilized with the result which indicates a highly significant result with p=0.000 (p< 0.0.5) and therefore factor analy-sis is appropriate (Shaharudin et al, 2010).

Table 3: Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin and Bartlett’s Test

Attitude Subjective Norms

Perceived Behavior Control

Intention

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy

0.856 0.781 0.860 0.867

Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity

Approx. Chi-

Square 305.696 217.910 335.180 367.849

Df 28 28 45 28

Sig. 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

As shown in Table 3, the result of the KMO test reached the value of 0.856 for the first variable while second variable holds 0.781. The third variable which is perceived behavior control reached 0.860 and the intention of consumers towards halal food consumption in low-cost airline reached up to 0.867. Since all the variables exceeded the satisfactory level of 0.5, all four variables can be accept-ed with attributes. Bartlett’s test of Sphericity with the value at 0.0 levels is significant which means that there are inter-correlations among variables. The factor loading from the principal component factor analysis obtained after a varimax rotation of passenger response to the 21 statements, which is reduced to 14 statements. The analysis identifies four latent factors with attitude being the most influential ones. The result of factor analysis shows in Table 4.

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Table 4: Results of Factor Analysis

Dimension (Factors) Total Variance (percentage of explained)

Number of items

Attitude toward Inflight Halal Meal 54.856 4

The Subjective Norms toward Inflight Halal Meal

47.077 4

Perceived behavioral control toward In- flight Halal Meal

47.632 3

The Intention toward Inflight Halal Meal 60.469 3

Explained variance is an estimate of the strength of the relationship between treatments or fac-tors and dependent variables of interest to the researcher(s) (Good & Fletcher, 1981).The percentage of variance explained is used in measuring how much total variance is explained by each factor. The four factors, explaining 64.082% of the total variance are summarized as follows:

ATTITUDE TOWARD INFLIGHT HALAL MEALS

This factor consists of four sub-factors which are “Religious obligation is not only my major concern to purchase inflight halal foods”; “Halal food helps to maintain good health”; “Purchasing halal guarantees that food products are not contaminated” and “I have high confidence on inflight halal food”. The results of this factor suggested that the attitude of the passengers plays a key role to-wards purchasing inflight halal food regardless their religious concerns, as in Malaysia halal foods are well-known to have better quality and as being safer to consume. In addition, passenger trust seems to be important in shaping their attitude towards inflight halal food.

SUBJECTIVE NORMS TOWARD INFLIGHT HALAL MEALS

This factor is explained by four sub-factors which are: “Since I live in Malaysia, I consume halal food”; “My family thinks that halal food is healthier”; “Flying with local airlines encourages me to purchase halal food” and “My social cycle encourages me to consume halal food”. The results indi-cate that the respondent’s social circle also has an impact on them when it comes to purchasing in-flight halal food.

PERCEIVED BEHAVIORAL CONTROL TOWARD INFLIGHT HALAL MEALS

This factor comprises three sub-factors “If I want to purchase inflight halal food, I am able to do so”, “Halal food is widely available in LCCs” and “I am confident with the halalness of inflight food in LCCs”. The results show that besides attitude and subjective norm, there are other motivational sources such as having control over their purchase and their ability to trust on halal food influence purchasing behavior.

INTENTION TOWARD INFLIGHT HALAL MEAL

The last factor explains the respondents’ intention through three statements which are: “I intend to purchase inflight halal food on a regular basis”, “For me it is important to purchase inflight halal food on regular basis is” and “I will make an effort to purchase inflight halal food on a regular basis”.

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CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

The results of this study show that consumer intention to purchase inflight halal meal while flying with low-cost carriers depends on their attitude, external influences and their ability to control the situation. Based on the results attitude was found to be one of the main determinates influencing passenger intentions to purchase halal food. While the approach of LCCs is to provide passengers with considerable cost advantages, the operating economics associated with long-haul flights food and services are slightly different, especially when passengers demand for specific foods (e.g. halal, kosher and vegetarian). LCCs should adopt a strategic approach to the provision of religious ethnic foods (e.g. halal food in this case) to meet the requirements of passengers and to improve flight and brand selection. In Malaysia, LCCs’ ability to drive demand by lowering prices has contributed signif-icantly to their success especially for domestic and short haul flights. However, our study suggests that there may be limitations to some aspects of this approach in long term. For example, flying back to Malaysia on an 8-hour flight, when the majority of passengers have high a demand for halal foods can cause an issue for the airline managers. Furthermore, some limitations became apparent during the course of the research. As considered at the beginning of this research, respondents may not rep-resent the whole populations as this study is only conducted in a few locations in Malaysia. In fact, the respondent may not have been representative of Malaysia population. So, the possibility for non-citizens, especially non-Muslims, do not really understand the scope of the study due to language fac-tors or in terms of knowledge and acceptance towards halal concept itself. Moreover, the intention toward inflight halal meal was also shaped by subjective norm and perceived behavioral control. Among Malaysian Muslims, religion is one of the strongest principles on which diets are based. However, in case of non-Muslims, the availability and wholesomeness aspects of halal food influence their intention to purchase halal food products. LCCs (especially in Muslim regions) may consider taking the next step and revisiting some of their strategy when it comes to in-flight food and services. Attention needs to be given to the promoting and availability of halal food to expand the Muslim tourism market in the South East Asian region. For future research, additional studies on local and international insights towards halal inflight food within a broader geographical area should be ex-plored.

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BIOGRAPHIES

Dr Zul Ariff Bin Abdul Latiff is currently a Senior Lecturer in Faculty of Agro Based Industry, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK). Besides teaching he has published papers related with Agribusiness and Food Marketing. In addition, he is the Head of Student Enterprise in UMK Jeli Campus handling more than 20 student companies that are involved with agro based products.

Nurul Nadia Ya’akob received the BSc degree in Applied Science (Agro-technology) from the University Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) in 2019.

Zul Ariff et al

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Intan Balkis Sohaimi received the BSc degree in Applied Science (Agro-technology) from the University Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) in 2019.

Nursalwani Muhamad is a graduate student from Universiti Malaysia Kelan-tan (UMK) who is currently continue the study for PhD in Universiti Ma-laysia Kelantan.