Saudi Airlines Service Quality: Passengers’ Perceptions toward SAUDIA Operational Procedures Pre-flight Services: An Empirical Investigation
The study aimed at assessing service quality (SQ) of Saudi Arabian Airlines (SAUDIA); the sole national air transporter in Saudi Arabia. Considering the SERVQUAL model developed by Parasuraman et al. (1985), the study used a developed scale dedicated to Airlines industry. The nine dimensions scale “ASQUAL” included: declaration practices, planning practices, front offices procedures, technological self-processes, crew practices, operational procedures, equipping processes, hospitality practices, and warranty procedures. Among those dimensions, this study focused on the ASQUAL sixth dimension: operational procedures. For this purpose, 502 questionnaires were collected and analyzed from different gender, passengers classes, educational levels, and ages. With its Eight factors, the operational procedures dimension used in this study and revealed that the passengers were in general unsatisfied about the quality of the operational procedures services (OPSQ) provided by SAUDIA. The measured factors were: Waiting Time (Counters Queue), Frequent Announcements (Final Boarding & Pre-flight), On-Time (Flight Departure), Waiting Time (Baggage Arrival). The other remaining factors were: Announcement (Guidance to Specific Baggage Carousel), Safety (Delivered Baggage), Announcement (Replacement for Delayed Flight), and Pre-announcement (Replacement for Canceled Flight / 7+ Days Prior). The study showed that there -at least- two operational services were unoffered by SAUDIA. The contributions of this study to the existent literature in services quality are assessed together with the contributions made to the air transport industry. The limitations of the study discussed, the recommendations addressed, and the potential for future research in this filed indicated.