A Mixed Method Approach for Understanding Challenges and Improving Customer Experience at ABC Airport

Methodology

The previous chapter provided literature review of studies already conducted. In this chapter, he report will detail the type data that will be collected, how it would be collected and how it will be analyzed. This study will done in ABC airport which serves both local and international travelers

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Study Design

Mixed research study design will be applied in the study. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods will be employed for this research as part of mixed study design. Although this research will be mainly quantitative in nature, open-ended questions and opportunities will also be included for more qualitative information. Qualitative research tends to investigate essential and distinctive features of actions and experiences as lived by a person. Furthermore, it aims to interpret the behavior and meanings that people have given to their experience. Kwiatkowska (n.d) observed that the goal is to describe and possibly explain events and experiences. Qualitative research method is used in research with an aim of gathering an in depth understanding information. It investigates the how and why of making of decisions. Therefore, samples that are smaller but focused are often used instead of large samples.

Questionnaires will be designed with close-ended questions in order to get structured information from the respondents (Saunders et al, 2009). A Likert scale will be used for designing the questionnaires. The answer choices in the Likert scale range from one extreme to another, therefore revealing the degree of opinion of respondents (Surveymonkey, 2014). The agreement scale will include; strongly agree, agree, disagree and strong disagreement. The frequency scale will include; often, sometimes, seldom and never. Lastly, the importance scale will include extremely important, very important, moderately important, neutral, slightly important, low importance, not at all important.

Population and Sample,

The study will be conducted in ABC airport to find out how the challenges facing the aviation industry affect customer satisfaction and efficiency in service delivery at the airports, and how the aviation industry can deal with these challenges in a more cost effective manner. The study will use structured survey questions at selected departure gates and the boarding areas to find out the experiences of the airline users on the basis of the parameters identified. Systematic random sampling technique will be used in the study because it is simple and its results are representative of the general population. The target population for this study will be airline travellers who uses ABC airport. A total of 2 departure gates and boarding areas for local and international travellers will be used for data collection, and 100 respondents from of the 2 selected departure gates and boarding areas will be surveyed. These areas will be selected after being granted official access by the airports management and because the travellers will be relaxed and waiting for their flights.

Variables and Measures

The dependent variable is delayed flights and efficiency in service delivery to the customers before they board a plane. The independent variable is the number of customers that are served at the customer serving points, both online and physically at the airport.

Data Collection Methods

The primary data for the study will be collected using structured survey questionnaires at ABC airport. The structured questions that will be used in data collection is listed in Appendix 1.Thesurvey will consist of three parts. Part one will profile the survey respondents by asking about their gender and age. Part two of the survey will create a profile for a respondent as an airline services user. Which airlines are more often used, how often does a respondent use an airline as means of transportation, what Is the main habits and motives in air transportation in general. Additionally, frequent flyer programs and their usage will be investigated under this section. Part three of the survey will list selected attributes for service quality. The respondent will evaluate them on a seven-step scale. Furthermore, the respondents will have to rate the key general attributes of air travel such as flight or safety schedule, in an order of importance. Lastly, the survey will contain two open questions asking the participants to elaborate more on their experiences of quality of service and share their ideas for improvement in service.

In order to get adequate information about their experiences when travelling, only respondents who had air tickets were included in the study as a sample. The respondents were air travellers who had paid for their air tickets and were willing to fill the survey questionnaires. All the survey questionnaires were found to be reliable, complete and valid since the responses were recorded by the respondents themselves. Collection of the data was done over a period of one months from April 2015 to May 2015.

Data Analysis Methods

Quantitative and qualitative analysis of data findings will be done to enable drawing of conclusions and provision of recommendations (Bitsch, 2005). For the analysis of the questionnaire, basic descriptive statistics will be used in order to compare means of different variables. Data findings will be presented in tables, graphs, plots and frequency distributions.

Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and the Chi-Square test

ANOVA is a common and powerful statistical procedure that is always used in social sciences. One way analysis of variance will be used as a procedure used in comparing means/averages of two or more samples. This study will use one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test in exploring customer travelling experiences. Chi-square tests will also be done to explore the relation between the travelling experiences of the customers’ and the customer’s demographics using the airlines.

References

Avers, K., Johnson, B., Banks, J., & Wenzel, B. (2012). Technical documentation challenges in aviation maintenance. Federal Aviation Administration. Oklahoma City: OK Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, 12-16.

Bitsch, V, (2005). Qualitative Research: A Grounded Theory Example and Evaluation Criteria. Journal of Agribusiness, 23, 1: 75-91.

Cento, A. (2009). The Airline Industry: Challenges in the 21st Century. Heidelberg, Germany: Physica-Verlag.

Endsley, M. R. (1999). Situation awareness in aviation systems. Handbook of Aviation Human Factors, 257-276.

Gössling, S., & Upham, P. (2009). Climate change and aviation: Issues, challenges, and solutions. Earth scan, 1-17.

Jones, P. W. (2004). The airline industry: Facing the challenges of the 21st century.

Kwiatkowska, Agnieszka. (n.d.). Online Data Collection: The Current State of “Click” Research.

Oster, C. V., Strong, J. S., & Zorn, C. K. (2013). Analyzing aviation safety: Problems, challenges, opportunities. Research in Transportation Economics, 43(1), 148-164.

Ringbeck, J., Majdalani, F., & Ismail, A. G. (2006). Mastering the Challenges of the Middle East Aviation System. . Booz Allen Hamilton.

Saunders, M., Lewis, P. And Thornhill, A., (2009). Research Methods for Business Students. London: Financial Times/Prentice Hall

Survey Monkey. (2014). The Likert Scale Explained. [Online] Retrieved from https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/likert-scale/

Appendix 1

I will be conducting a short survey on the challenges facing the aviation industry affect customer satisfaction and efficiency in service delivery at the airports, and how the aviation industry deal with these challenges in a more cost effective manner. I would appreciate if you answer all the below questions. Thank you for your corporation and time.

Part 1: passenger’s profile

Please indicate your gender

• Female
• Male

Please choose your age group

• 20-24
• 25-29
• 30-35

Your major reason of flying

• Leisure
• Business
• Personal reasons/ commuting

During the last 12 months, how many return flights have you had?

• 1 to 2
• 3 to 5
• 6 to 10
• More than 10

Which airlines do you use most often? (Please choose a maximum of 3)

• Alaska Airlines
• Allegiant Air
• American Airlines
• Delta Airlines
• Frontier Airlines
• Hawaiian Airlines
• JetBlue
• Southwest Airlines
• Spirit Airlines
• United Airlines
• US Airways
• Virgin America
• Envoy Air
• ExpressJet
• SkyWest Airlines
• Other

Are you a subscriber to any of the frequent flyer programs (please choose a maximum of 3)?

• Dividend Miles (US Airways)
• The JetBlue True Blue (JetBlue)
• Southwest Rapid Rewards (Southwest Airlines)
• Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan (Alaska Airlines)
• United MileagePlus (United Airlines)
• American Airlines AAdvantage (American Airlines)
• Virgin America Elevate (Virgin America)
• Delta SkyMiles (Delta Airlines)
• HawaiianMiles (Hawaiian Airlines)
• Frontier EarlyReturns (Frontier Airlines)
• FREE SPIRIT (Spirit Airlines)
• Not a member
• Other

Does your subscription affect your choice of the airline? (In form of collecting miles, benefits such as access to the executive lounges, price promotions)Agree

• Agree Strongly
• Agree
• Disagree
• Strongly Disagree
• Not Applicable

Have you ever received any of the benefits due to your subscription? (Access to business lounge, business class upgrades, boarding or check in priority)

• Often
• Sometime
• Seldom
• Never
• Not applicable

What is your commonest way of searching for and buying your flight tickets?

• Travel search engines
• Carrier’s own website
• Someone searches and ten purchases the tickets for you
• Online travel agencies

Part 2: service path

Please make an evaluation of the following statements based on how they are important to you

Please prioritize the following attributes of service quality in their order of importance to you (the most important is 1, and least important is 7)

Flight frequency/ schedule

Safety

Responsiveness (efficient service)

Reliability (consistent service, punctuality)

Employees’ attitude and appearance

Facilities (waiting lounge, in-flight facilities, check-in)

Customization (anticipation of your needs, individual attention)

Part 3: open questions

What services of airline would you recommend or improve to carriers?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Please identify one airline which you consider very superior to the others in terms of quality of service. Why? (Maximum of 5 reasons)

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Herman Bailey

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