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Faculty of Organisation and Management

BSc (Honours) Tourism Management

Title A study to investigate the service quality perceptions of Cathay Pacific Airway passengers Name Au Wai Ho, Alex Student No 91203349 Month Year April 2009

Sheffield Hallam University

Faculty of Organisation and Management

Title A study to investigate the service quality perceptions of Cathay Pacific Airway passengers FULL NAME Au Wai Ho, Alex STUDENT No 91203349 Supervisor: Dr. Connie Mok In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Tourism Management. Month Year April 2009

I

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr. Connie Mok who supervised the whole process of this

dissertation with patience, guidance and assistance.

I would also like to give thanks to Ms. Jorica Fok and Ms. Elaine Yip for their

great support and suggestions for this dissertation.

Finally, the researcher would like to thank all the respondents who had

participated in the survey of this study for providing valuable information for the

primary research.

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Abstract

The airline industry was undergoing a very difficult time and the highly competitive market environment pressurized airline to deliver high quality services. It was very important for developing marketing strategies, service quality management, service segmentation strategies and product development to obtain the new customers and retain the exceeding customers of different groups of passengers. To achieve this ultimate goal, this paper had investigated passengers’ perceptions by 22 SERVQUAL attributes on five service quality dimensions: Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy (Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry, 1990).The result demonstrated that ‘Empathy’ was the most important service quality dimension. And “Tangible’ got the highest mean score of service quality perception of Cathay Pacific Airways passengers.

Cathay Pacific Airways also needed to understand the significant difference among airline service quality perception, demographic characteristics and travel patterns. One-way ANOVA and an independent sample t-test were applied to the data collected from the passengers who traveled with Cathay Pacific Airways in the past 12 months and their age were all above 18 years old. The result revealed that passengers’ perception were significantly different across age, nationality, occupation, class of cabin, frequency of travel and purpose of travel.

Based on the finding on this research, the researcher also recommended some improvement strategies to Cathay Pacific Airways to enhance the service quality perception of the passengers.

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Table of Content

Page

Title Page

Acknowledgements I

Abstract II

Table of Contents III

List of figures V

List of Tables VI

List of Abbreviations VII

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Introduction of Cathay Pacific Airways 1 1.2 Service quality of Cathay Pacific Airways 2 1.3 The key challenges of Cathay Pacific Airways 4 1.4 Aim & objectives of the research 6

Chapter 2 Literature Review

2.1 Characteristics of tourism services 7 2.2 Dimensions of service quality 8 2.3 SERVQUAL gap model 9 2.4 Perception of service quality 11 2.5 Importance of marketing strategies 14 2.6 Importance of service quality 15 2.7 Airline service quality study 18 2.8 Service quality dimensions in airline industry 21

Chapter 3 Methodology

3.1 Secondary research 26 3.2 Limitations of secondary research 26

IV

3.3 Primary research 27 3.4 Sampling and data collection 28 3.5 Survey instrument 29 3.6 Limitation of primary research 31

Chapter 4 Results

4.1 Demographic results 32 4.2 Travel pattern results 34 4.3 Importance of service quality dimensions 37 4.4 Means of perceived service quality 38 4.5 Means and Rank of 22 SERVQUAL service quality statements 41 4.6 Passengers perception differences by genders 45 4.7 Passengers perception differences by age 46 4.8 Passengers perception differences by nationalities 49 4.9 Passengers perception differences by education level 52 4.10 Passengers perception differences by seat class 54 4.11 Passengers perception differences by occupation 59 4.12 Passengers perception differences by frequency of travel 62 4.13 Passengers perception differences by purpose of travel 64

Chapter 5 Conclusions and Recommendations

5.1 Conclusion 68 5.2 Recommendations for the further studies 71 5.3 Recommendation for Cathay Pacific Airways 72

Reference 75

Appendices

I: Market share of Top 10 Airlines used by visitors 2006 & 2007 84

II: 22 SERVQUAL service quality perception statements 85

III: Questionnaire compiled in Chinese and English version 86

V

List of Figure

Figure 1 SERVQUAL gap analysis model

VI

List of tables

4.1 Demographic results

4.2 Travel pattern of Cathay Pacific Airways passengers

4.3 Importance of service quality dimensions

4.4 Means of perceived service quality

4.5 Means and Rank of 22 SERVQUAL service quality statements

4.6 Passengers perception differences by genders

4.7 Passengers perception differences by age

4.8 Passengers perception differences by nationalities

4.9 Passengers perception differences by education level

4.10 Passengers perception differences by seat class

4.11 Passengers perception differences by occupation

4.12 Passengers perception differences by frequency of travel

4.13 Passengers perception differences by purpose of travel

VII

List of Abbreviations

ANOVA One-way analysis of variance

CX Cathay Pacific Airways

SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

HKIA Hong Kong International Airport

HKSAR Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

HKTB Hong Kong Tourism Board

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Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Introduction of Cathay Pacific Airways

Cathay Pacific Airways had been serving and growing with Hong Kong for 60

years. Cathay Pacific's development was a typical Hong Kong success story.

From Shanghai where they were originally based they moved to Hong Kong

and started managing the airline. Nowadays, they owned more than 100

aircraft employed over 23,000 people and it was one of the largest airways in

Hong Kong. (Cathay Pacific Airways, 2009).

It was also an international airline registered and based in Hong Kong, offering

scheduled cargo and passenger services to over 90 destinations around the

world. Nowadays, Cathay Pacific Airways currently is ranked as the world’s 7th

most profitable airline (net profit) by operating revenue. Also, Cathay Pacific

was ranked 17th-largest in the world in terms of revenue passenger kilometers.

(Air Transport World, 2008). Cathay Pacific's success was a major driving

force behind Hong Kong's aviation development, which in turn supported Hong

Kong’s continued trade and economic growth.

Sultan and Simpson (2000) stated that the major airline industry competitors,

seeking to gain or expand market share globally or regionally, provided an

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opportunity to explore the service expectation and perception of customers of

different nationalities. Cathay Pacific had the biggest market share in Hong

Kong’s airlines industry, 32.4% in 2006 and 30.5% in 2007 respectively. Based

on the market share, it showed that Cathay Pacific Airways was a successful

airline in Hong Kong. (Hong Kong Tourism Board, 2007). (Appendix I).

1.2 Service quality of Cathay Pacific Airways

Cathay Pacific Airways set “Providing service straight from the heart” and

“Encouraging product leadership” as their mission. With its outstanding safety

record, quality management and remarkable service, Cathay Pacific Airways

awarded “Airline of the Year award runner-up” in 2008, “Best Airline Economy,

Business and First Class” in2008, and other service award and honors.

(Cathay Pacific Airways, 2008). Cathay Pacific Airways was a brand name that

Hong Kong people could be proud of.

In order to maintain the customer’s loyalty, Cathay Pacific Airways provide two

types of frequent flyer programs to the frequent travelers. They were the Marco

Polo Club and the Asia Miles which was an affiliated program with other

airlines.

With Cathay Pacific's worldwide network, Dragonair's extensive coverage of

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Mainland China, and both airlines' affiliation with the oneworld alliance, made

the Marco Polo Club be the most powerful airline loyalty club in Asia. The

Marco Polo Club let passengers enjoyed a world of benefits, convenience and

personalized service wherever they go, included: Priority check-in and

boarding, in-flight duty-free specials on Cathay Pacific and Dragonair, the club

magazine and other services. Asia Miles was a travel reward program which

the passengers could fly with 20 Asia Miles partner airlines to earn Asia Miles

towards flight awards, upgrades, companion tickets and other lifestyle awards

such as dining coupons and free accommodation.

Cathay Pacific Airways was one of the members of the oneworld alliances. The

oneworld brought together ten of the worlds biggest and the best airlines and

other 20 affiliates, including British Airways, Japan Airlines and American

Airlines. There were many benefits not only for customers, but also airlines

through the formation of alliances. The passengers could use different airlines

within their journeys as alliances allowed them to transfer between member

airlines easier. Customers could also get benefit substantially from the cost

reduction possibilities afforded by alliances. Furthermore, it was more easily

for people to travel to more places for greater value. The presence of alliance

was due to the constraints of flying regulations or economic concern to serve

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all markets in the world.

1.3 The key challenges of Cathay Pacific Airways

The airlines industry in Hong Kong faced intensive competition. There were

almost 90 airlines operated flights in the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA)

(Airport Authority Hong Kong, 2008). Consumer would like to seek for

information through the internet, magazines or other sources of information so

as to compare the service quality of Cathay Pacific Airways with other airlines.

As a result, the tools to maintain customer loyalty and market share were the

most challenge for full services carriers like Cathay Pacific Airways.

Hui (2006) who was the former Chief Secretary of HKSAR government stated

that this might be an increasing challenge as Cathay Pacific became not just a

regional, but a truly global and international operator. There were significant

implications in a wide range of policy matters involving leadership,

management, services, image, commitment and balance between commercial

and public interests.

Chan (2009), Bloomberg reporter stated that “Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., and

other Asian carriers will all post losses next year as the fallout from the global

economic crisis curbs demand for air travel and the fuel price at the higher

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level.” In August 2008, Cathay Pacific posted its first half-year loss in five years,

an interim loss of 663 million Hong Kong dollars and recently issued a second

profit warning for its full results in 2008. Harbison (2009), managing director of

the centre for Asia Pacific Aviation stated that “demand has fallen off very fast.

This is a global problem and it's not going to be resolved in three months. It's

going to be here for a year or maybe two years.''

The multinational company and the business travelers would like to reduce the

spending on business travel. Chan (2009) stated that Merrill Lynch & Co., UBS

AG and JPMorgan & Chase Co. were telling senior bankers in Asia to fly coach

on short-haul flights and reduce non-essential travel.

Airlines today are facing the difficult challenges of simultaneously maximizing

the customers’ satisfaction and minimizing the production costs and it is hard

to make a balance, and survive in the financial tsunami. The reason was that

when enhanced the service quality to satisfy the customer expectation, at the

same time the production costs was raised as well as the costs would affect

the price of the product or services. Indeed, it affected perception of

passengers on the service quality.

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1.4 Aim & objectives of the research

Due to the importance of service quality to airline industry, the researcher was

to investigate the performance of Cathay Pacific Airways as perceived by its

passengers, to suggest improvements to increase the repeated customers, to

maintain the market share and build up the brand loyalty. The following are the

objectives of the research:

Objectives:

1. To review and integrate the recent research in service quality;

2. To examine the service quality perception of Cathay Pacific Airways’

passengers through a quantitative research;

3. To explore the dimensions of service quality in evaluating the service

quality of Cathay Pacific Airways; and

4. To recommend improvement strategies to Cathay Pacific Airways based

on the findings of this study.

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Chapter 2 Literature Review

The theme of the research was to evaluate the service quality perception of

Cathay Pacific Airways’ passenger, so the researcher would like to mention

service quality perception concept of airline’s passenger in large proportion of

the study. Firstly, the researcher mentioned the characteristics of the tourism

service and the base concept of service quality- SERVQUAL model. Then the

researcher would like to mention the service quality perception and

concentrate on the investigation of the service quality concept in the airline

industry. Finally, the researcher defined four hypotheses for the further

research in this study.

2.1 Characteristics of tourism services

Reisinger (2001) stated that tourism services are primarily intangible. This

mean that tourism services did not have a physical dimension: could not be

touched, seen, tasted, felt, heard, or smelled in the same way as goods before

they were purchased. Williams and Buswell (2003) stated that the intangibles

were: inseparability, perishability and heterogeneity. Chang and Yeh (2002)

argued that quality in airline services was difficult to describe and measure due

to its heterogeneity, intangibility and inseparability.

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Reisinger (2001) argued that production and consumption of tourism services

were inseparable. Tourism services could not produce in one place,

transported for sale in another, and sold and consumed again in another.

Williams and Buswell (2003) stated that tourism services were perishable, this

mean that the services could not be stored. Reisinger (2001) argued that

tourism services were heterogeneous. They vary in standard and quality over

time because they were delivered by people to people and were a function of

human performance.

2.2 Dimensions of service quality

Wuest (2001) stated that service quality was the result of a complex network of

several dimensions. Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1988, 1994a) were

among the most recognized researchers in the area of service quality. Their

development and refinement of the SERVQUAL model produced generic

measure of service quality through examination of twenty two service items

and were categorized into five dimensions of service: tangibles, reliability,

responsiveness, assurance and empathy.

Tangibles consisted of the “appearance of physical facilities, equipment,

personnel and communications materials” (Berry and Parasuraman, 1991).

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Reliability reflected the service provider’s ability to perform service dependably

and accurately” (Parsuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, 1988). Furthermore, they

stated that responsiveness represented the “willingness to help customers and

provide prompt service”. Assurance reflected the “knowledge and courtesy of

employees and their ability to inspire trust and confidence”. Empathy involved

the “caring, individualized attention the firm provides its customers”.

2.3 SERVQUAL gap model

Parasuraman, Berry and Zeithaml (1985) argued that service quality was the

difference or gap between customer expectations and perceptions of the

service. It was known as the Gap5 of the SERVQUAL gap analysis model

(Figure 1).

The service quality gaps could be generated both internally and externally to

the organization. Gap 5 was external: customer expectations of the service

judged against perceptions of the service were affected by word-of-mouth

opinions, customers’ personal needs and their past experiences of their

current and previous service providers (Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry,

1990).

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Figure 1: SERVQUAL gap analysis model. (Source: Zeithaml et al., 1990)

The purpose of this study was to examine passenger perceptions of airline

service quality, the researcher wanted to recommend the further research on

the passenger expectation of Cathay Pacific Airways services, to compare the

result of this study and to adopt the SERVQUAL gap analysis model (gap 5) to

analysis the service quality of the Cathay Pacific Airways. Sultan and Simpson

(2000) stated that it was essential to know to what degree customer

perceptions of existing service fail to meet expectation.

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2.4 Perception of service quality

Berry and Parasuraman (1991) argued that guests were the judges of service

quality. Williams and Buswell (2003) stated that customer perceptions were

based on the actual service delivered, whilst customer expectations were

based on past experiences, word of mouth and personal needs. Service

quality perceptions were often defined as the difference between what a

customer expected and what they actually perceived as outcome (Headley and

Bowen, 1997). There were number of writers included Peter (1987) suggested

that if customer perception of a service was “excellent” and that was

consistently met their needs, the organization would establish a reputation for

“excellence”, e.g. Ritz Hotel or Disneyland.

The service quality perceptions of the guests vary widely. Similarly, guests’

perceived satisfaction with performed services also varies widely. Wuest (2001)

stated that there were two distinct variables influence guests’ perceptions:

customer expectations and service standards. Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and

Berry (1994b) stated that the gap between expectations and service

standards/performance was the primary indicator of overall service quality.

Wuest (2001) stated that guests expectations of service quality influences their

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resulting level of satisfaction. Lewison (1997) categorized service expectations

in three levels: essential, expected, and optional. Zeithaml, Berry, and

Parasuraman (1993) stated similar model of customer service expectations:

predicted, adequate, and desired. Expected services were those which guests

assumed the service provider should offer in order to provide adequate service.

(Wuest, 2001) Moreover, the expected services needed to provide beyond the

essential services by the company to stay in business in order to be

competitive in the industry.

But the needs of the customers were changing all the time, simultaneously

expected services increased, guests became more demanding, requiring the

service provider to move beyond what is common place. (Wuest, 2001) The

service companies needed to be continuous improving their service quality to

maintain the market share and the service quality perception of the consumers.

Juran (1988) argued that the only appropriate goal in the quality function of the

organization was continuous improvement.

Service standard were changing benchmarks as customer’s expectations

increase and the organization responds to such changes. (Callan,1994).

Appropriate service standards depended on the mission of the organization

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and further depended on two factors: the service policies of the organization

and the actual performance of the service procedures. (Wuest, 2001) And the

service organizations established their service policies were based on their

company’s image and appropriate to their target market. But in the real world

the service standard and the policies established by the service organization,

but the personnel might not perform adequately. Dailey (1997) argued that

relay and motivate employees were more likely to capture the essence of a

quality service plan, and Starbucks was a good example. Their early company

goal was to provide excellent service and led to success in a pricey coffee

market.

Tsaur, Chang and Yen (2002) stated that different individual usually had wide

range of perceptions toward quality service, depending on their preference

structure and roles in process (service providers/receivers). There were many

possible aspects that could influence the airline consumer’s perception of

quality at different times in the consumption process (Headly and Bowen,

1997).

Customer constantly complained about the quality of service provided by the

airlines, and their perceptions were that it was deteriorating at a significant rate

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(McCollough, Berry and Yadav, 2000). The perception was that the increase in

air rage incidents arise from the increase in poor service (Brady and Cronim,

2001). Furthermore, the employee’s behavior was critical and could be directly

correlated to shaping the perception of the organization’s image (Hunter,

2006).

2.5 Importance of marketing strategies

Customers’ perception of service quality and the satisfaction levels were

affected by media advertising, employees’ emotions, and service guarantee

(Parasuraman et al, 1985). Park (2007) also stated that a range of airlines’

marketing strategies and particular marketing variables influencing airline

choice. Passengers identified the relative strengths and weaknesses of these

factors among airlines with their perceptions varying across airlines. If the

airlines wanted to identify their competitive position, they needed to

understand passengers’ perception of choice factors.

Therefore, companies got the competitive advantages in these three areas will

become success. The delivery of high- quality service became a marketing

requirement among air carriers as a result of competitive pressure (Ostrowski,

O’Brien and Gordon, 1993). There were some of the empirical studies about

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the demand for airline services showed that service quality was central to the

choice of airlines for both business and leisure travelers (Bureau of Transport

and Communications Economies, 1994).

Airlines introduced many promotional incentives such as frequent flyer

program- Asia Miles, Marco Polo Club, Mileage Plus Frequent Flyer Program

and so on. Tsaur, Chang and Yen (2002) stated that airline hoped to

consolidate the market share and enhanced profitability by the marketing

strategies. However, the marginal benefits of marketing strategies gradually

reduced because most of the airlines acted similarity. The airlines recognized

the limitation of the marketing strategies, some of the airlines tended to focus

on the commitment of improving customer service quality, such as Cathay

Pacific Airways.

2.6 Importance of Service Quality

Pakdil and Aydin (2007) stated that understanding, building and maintaining

quality were the main concerns of business. In the real world, providing quality

was not a concern of manufacturing companies alone. Akan (1995) argued

that delivering quality service was also important for many service firms. In the

recent years, there were many service organizations recognized service

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quality as potential source of sustainable competitive advantage. (Kuei, 1998).

Gilbert and Wong (2003) suggested that delivering superior service quality was

a prerequisite for success and survival in today’s competitive business

environment. It was generally acknowledged that the only appropriate goal in

the quality function of the organization was continuous improvement (Juran,

1988).

Service quality was the difference between consumers’ perceived service

performance and their expectations (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1985). If

the customers received the service met or exceeded their expectations,

customers had high perceptions of service quality, customers were satisfied

and felt happy, and they would continue to buy from you, or to buy another

product or service from you or recommended your services to others. On the

other hand, if the services received lower or out of their expectation, they had

low perception of service quality. So that better service quality would bring in

more revenue and higher profitability.

Reichheld (1996) stated that in United States, the companies lose their

customer about 68% would leave on average base over five year’ time

because of a bad service experience. And the main point was that it cost five

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times more to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one. Providing

excellent customer service could make the different, to change the bad service

quality perception of airline passengers and to capture the business

opportunities.

In Taiwan, the air travel market, both domestic and international, had been

experiencing great competition due to both the deregulation and the increasing

of customer’s awareness of service quality (Tsaur, Chang and Yen, 2002). The

US carriers saw the airline alliances as a way of improving their service quality,

but in the long term, the success of an alliance may be jeopardized if partners

were perceived not to offer the same level of service (Sultan and Simpson,

2000).

Gilbert and Wong (2002) stated that improvement in service provided

improved profit due to increasing the customer base through new and repeat

purchase from more loyal customers. Gale (1992) indicated that companies

that offer superior service were able to charge 8 per cent more for their

product.

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2.7 Airline service quality study

There were a range of services provided by the air carriers to the customers

including ticket reservation, purchase, airport group service, on board service

and service at the destination. It also consisted of the assistance associated

with disruption such as lost-baggage handing and service for delayed

passengers (Tsaur, Chang and Yen, 2002).

The researcher would like to mention the service quality more specific in the

airline industry. Providing superior service quality was the most important

blocks of gaining competitive advantages to retain and expand the market

share and earn more profit in the service industry, especially in the airline

industry. However, there were some study did not agreed with this. Gilbert and

Wong (2003) stated that some passengers might feel price was an important

aspect of demand. Most air passengers were sensitive to airline ticket price

and airlines thus used pricing as a marketing tool to differentiate market based

on elasticity of demand. Park (2007) stated that prices were determined based

on different fare sensitivities of business and leisure passengers.

Collis (1998) stated that IATA in 1997 carried out research in North America,

Europe and Asia and found passengers favored punctuality (65 percent) and

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scheduling (52 percent) over price (37 percent). But this was not to say that

providing superior service quality was the secondary concern to airlines, and

for this study, the researcher was emphasis on improving the service

strategies.

Moreover, service quality also affected passenger’s choices, seen as referring

to passengers’ overall impressions of the relative quality of airlines and their

services. It could influence an airline’s competitive advantage (Morash and

Ozment, 1994) and could be the driver of passenger satisfaction, loyalty and

passenger’s choice of airline (Ostrowski et al.). In the airline industry,

understanding the passenger’s perception and expectation was essential to

providing desired service quality. There were many possible aspects that could

influence the airline consumer’s perception of quality at different times in the

consumption process. (Headly and Bowen, 1997)

Customer constantly complained about the quality of service provided by the

airlines, and their perceptions were that it was deteriorating at a significant rate

(McCollough, Berry and Yadav, 2000). The perception was that the increase in

air rage incidents arise from the increase in poor service (Brady and Cronim,

2001). Furthermore, the employee’s behavior was critical and could be directly

20

correlated to shaping the perception of the organization’s image (Hunter,

2006).

Clifford, Cunningham and Moomkyu (1994) stated that in the pre deregulation

era airline service quality was assessed with respect to industry and

managerial variables such as flight frequency, load factors, transit times and

aircraft type. But in the post deregulation environment, superior service quality

has been accepted as an important source of customer retention and loyalty,

which may ultimately lead to superior competitive performance (Parasurman et

al., 1985, 1988; Zeithaml, Berry and Parasurman, 1996; Dawkins and

Reichheld, 1990; Reichheld and Sasser, 1990; Berry and Parasurman, 1994).

There were further studies on airline service quality concept. Parasurman et al.

(1991b) argued that customer loyalty could be achieved by organizations that

display consistency, reliability and fairness in the provision of their services. It

was mean that these three elements were the major component of achieving

superior airline service quality. A commercial market research which called

Zagat Research (2005) produced a report on airline service quality, and the

data was presented in four categories: Comfort, service, food and website.

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2.8 Service quality dimensions in airline industry

Chang and Yeh (2002) argued that quality in airline services was difficult to

describe and measure due to its heterogeneity, intangibility and inseparability.

And SERVQUAL had been proposed as a valid and reliable model in airline

service quality studies (Gilbert and Wong, 2003; Park, Robertson and Wu,

2004).

Pakdil and Aydin (2007) mentioned that the problem in airline sector was

whether the management could correctly perceive what customers wanted and

expected, and the “voice of customer” should be taken into the design process.

After delivering the services, services providers should monitor how well the

customers’ expectations had been met. SERVQUAL was the model that

providing the foundation for evaluating customers’ expectation and perception.

SERVQUAL had five dimensions to measure service quality: tangibles,

reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy (Zeithaml, Parasuraman

and Berry, 1990). And customers evaluated the quality of service by

determining whether there was any gap between their expectation and

perceptions (Gap 5). SERVQUAL was based on the idea that quality was a

subjective customer evaluation, as service was not a physical item, but an

22

experience ( Parasuraman et al., 1988; Gronroos, 1990). So that customers’

perception was a better measure than other performance measures (Akan,

1995).

Previous studies found that individual dimensions of service quality in addition

to overall quality influence passenger’ buying behavior (Park, Robertson and

Wu, 2005). Based on the airline service quality report from SKYTRAX,

passengers’ opinions and experiences toward different airline services and

perception of different airline service dimensions had a direct or indirect effect

on buying behavior (Park, 2007).

The recent study by Park (2007), he investigated Korean and Australian

international airline passengers’ perceptions of 11 factors that might influence

their buying behavior, there were: in flight service, reservation-related service,

airport service, reliability, employee service, flight availability, perceived price,

passenger satisfaction, perceived value, airline image, and overall service

quality. The result revealed that passenger perceptions were significantly

different across seat class and usage frequencies

Sultan and Simpson (2000) investigated the perceptions of European and US

passengers and found that the two passengers groups had significant

23

difference in the perception of the airline service quality, excepted in the

responsiveness dimension. It was mean that service quality perceptions vary

by nationality.

Gilbert and Wong (2002) stated that there were three major reasons

passengers needed to travel: namely for business, for holiday and to visit

friends / relatives, and it was believed that each group’s perceptions would be

different. If passengers’ needs for travelling were different, then there would be

a significant difference in their perceptions of airline service quality.

Clifford, Cunningham and Moomkyu (1994) also used the SEEVQUAL scale

found that reliability was the dominant predictor of satisfaction while both

reliability and empathy influenced customer intention. Sultan and Simpson

(2000) found the SERVQUAL factor of reliability was the most important

dimension among air passengers.

There were many SERVQUAL related studies measured airline service quality

through various quality dimensions. Gourdin (1988) proposed airline service

quality in terms: price, safety, and timelines. Elliott and Roach (1993)

categorized timeliness luggage transport, food and beverage quality, seat

comfort, the check in process, and in- flight service dimensions. Furthermore,

24

Ostrowski et al. (1993) stated that to measure service quality with timeliness,

food and beverage quality, and comfort of seat dimensions. Truitt and Haynes

(1994) defined the convenience of transit, check-in process, timeliness, the

seat cleanliness, the processing of luggage, food and beverage quality, and

handling of customer complaints as the standards of service quality. Bowen

and Headley (2000) indicated on-time arrival, mishandled baggage, being

denied boarding, airline safety. Passenger complaints on items also included

to measured the service quality, such as flight, reservation, ticketing. Moreover,

the boarding problems included: fares, refunds, customer service, frequent

flyer programs and advertising also indicated in the service quality evaluation.

Besides the scholar’s argument, the US Department of Commerce monitored

schedule, non- stop flight availability, safety reputation, on-time reputation,

in-flight service reputation, and frequent flyer program as variables were

affecting the passenger’s choices.

Pakdil and Aydin (2007) stated that the quality dimensions used in evaluating

airline services vary extensively, but could be classify comprehensively within

the SERVQUAL dimensions. And in this study, the researcher was based the

SERVQUAL dimensions and the 22 SERVQUAL service quality perception

25

statements (Appendix II). Passenger perceptions of key factors of buying

behavior for different segments of air passengers were explored.

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Chapter 3 Methodology

3.1 Secondary Research

Before conducted the primary research, the researcher firstly reviewed and

integrated the secondary data first. To organize the study, the researcher

gathered different sources of information from electronic database which

included the academic journal and electronic books. Those materials provided

a base concept and theories on service quality and service quality perception

of the airline passengers. The researcher not only obtained the theoretical

expertise about the service quality, but also got the useful and general

information from the internet. Internet was the convenient channel to do the

research and the researchers conducted the research by entering the

company websites of Cathay Pacific Airways and evaluated its company

annual report. The newspapers and magazines could provide more updated

information about the airline service quality, especially those related to the

Cathay Pacific Airways.

3.2 Limitations of Secondary Research

Clegg and Hardy (1996) stated that data were originally collected for another

purpose was called secondary data. The secondary data could be referenced

27

not really as the same as what the researcher wanted. Furthermore, the

economic environment was changing due to the global financial crisis, the data

and concept might not be applied probably in this study. The researcher found

that different empirical studies had different results and it was difficult to find

similar study or research on the service quality perception of airline

passengers. In this way, it was necessary to adopt the primary research to

enhance the reliability and validity of this study.

3.3 Primary research

In the primary research section of this study, the researcher adopted the

questionnaire survey to collect the data. Cowton (1998) stated that

questionnaire surveys were typically the quickest and easiest of the tools to

use. In order to get the service quality perception of Cathay Pacific Airways

passengers, the questionnaire with bilingual language description was

designed to get the information (Appendix III). Those questionnaires were

based on the SERVQUAL 22 instruments (Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry,

1990).

The questionnaire was initially tested by 10 tourism-related employees who

had traveled by Cathay Pacific Airways at least once in the past 12 months to

28

test how comprehensible the questionnaire was. After these procedures, minor

changes were incorporated into the final version. It was also known as the

quantitative method and using the questionnaires to collect data was the most

useful and convenience way to finish the study under the time and money

constraint.

3.4 Sampling and Data collection

The survey was conducted by convenience sampling method by face to face

format to collect the information. To make the sample more representative and

in order to enhance the validity, the sample was taken from the passengers

who traveled with Cathay Pacific Airways in the past 12 months and the age

was above 18 years old. Choosing those samples because of their memories

was fresh and the data might be much more representative than those traveled

for a long time ago. It took place at the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA).

The survey was administered 3 days in February.

A total of 100 completed samples were collected. To reduce the refusal survey,

the researcher contacted the passengers politely by explaining the purpose

and the contribution of this research. If the uncompleted survey were found,

then the next available was replaced until the total of 100 completed

29

questionnaires were collected.

3.5 Survey instrument

The questionnaire contained an introduction at the beginning of the

questionnaire to explain the objective of the survey and ensure the

confidentiality of respondents (Appendix III). The questionnaire contained

three sections. Section 1 was the 22 statements of the service quality

perception (Zeithaml et al, 1990). Section 2 asked respondents to prioritize the

five service quality dimensions “in order of importance”. Section 3 gathered the

demographic information from respondents such as gender, age, nationality,

educational level, job position, average use of airlines services, travelling class

and the purpose of last trips.

The researcher designed the questionnaire in several steps in light of the

previous literature. Firstly, the researcher adopted the Zeithaml et al. (1990)

Operational SERVQUAL airline service quality perception 22 statements as the

foundation of the questionnaire. The 22 statements had five main dimensions

to measure airline service quality: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness,

assurance and empathy (Zeithaml et al., 1990).

Under the 22 -item questions, Question 1 – 4 analyzed how customers face on

30

the tangibles items of Cathay Pacific Airways; question 5 – 9 analyzed how

customers feel on the reliability of Cathay Pacific; Questions 10 – 13 analyzed

the responsiveness; question 14 – 17 analyzed the assurance of Cathay

Pacific Airways and finally, question 18 – 22 analyzed the empathy of Cathay

Pacific Airways. The questionnaire designed in this way was more reliable and

valid which could provide a better understanding on the determinants of

service quality perception of Cathay Pacific Airways passengers.

In section 1, the 22 statements were rated by using 5 – point Likert scale to

measure the level of agreement to the 22 statements. Perceptions were rated

from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. The possible answers of this

part questions were pre-code thus all the interviews need to do was circle the

most suitable answers.

In section 2, the respondents needed to prioritize the service quality

dimensions “in order of importance” by using Ordinal scale to rank-orders them

from 1 = the least importance to 5 = the most importance.

In section 3, it contained 9 questions were structured as closed questions. The

possible answers of these questions were pre – code and the respondents

needed to tick the most suitable answers. The structured questions were

31

easier to make analysis.

3.6 Limitation of Primary Research

Due to the limited financial and human resources, convenience sampling was

used in the research and the sample size was not big. The data might only

reflect a part of the Cathay Pacific Airways passengers’ attitudes and opinion.

Besides, it could provide generalize service quality perception. However, the

researcher believed that the findings were useful for further research for the

larger or bigger sample size.

The questionnaire of this research was compiled in two languages – Chinese

and English. Due to the language constraints, some of the respondents might

not understand these two languages and became restricted to answer the

questions (Appendix III).

32

Chapter 4 Result and Analysis

After collecting a total of 100 completed questionnaires from the sample

population of Cathay Pacific Airways passengers, data were generated by

SPSS 16.0. In this chapter, the findings of the study were discussed.

4.1 Demographic results

Eight demographic variables were analyzed in the study by frequency and the

percentage of the sample size. Table 4.1 summarized the demographic

characteristics of Cathay Pacific Airways passengers of the sample size. There

were 46 males (46%) and 54 females (54%) by gender from the completed

questionnaires.

The listed information showed that several age groups of passengers had

been interviewed. The age group of 18 to 29 was (34%); the age group of 30 to

39 was (24%); the age group of 40 to 49 was (23%); the age group of 50 to 59

was (16%) and the age above 60 was (3%).

Besides, most of the respondents were Chinese (36%). The other nationalities

were American (17%), British (14%), Canadian (11%) and Southeast Asian

(6%) respectively. And the others were Australian and New Zealander (16%).

33

Table 4.1 Demographic characteristics of Cathay Pacific Airways passengers

Demographic characteristics Frequency (N = 100) Percentage (%)Gender Male 46 46.0

Female 54 54.0

Age 18-29 34 34.0

30-39 24 24.0

40-49 23 23.0

50-59 16 16.0

over 60 3 3.0

Nationalities Chinese 36 36.0

Japanese 0 0

French 0 0

Canadian 11 11.0

American 17 17.0

British 14 14.0

German 0 0

Southeast Asian 6 6.0

Other (Australian and New Zealander ) 16 16.0

Educational level Primary 4 4.0

Secondary 10 10.0

Tertiary, non-degree course 27 27.0

Tertiary, degree course 46 46.0

Postgraduate or above 13 13.0

Occupation Managers and administrators 10 10.0

Professional 13 13.0

Associate professionals 14 14.0

Clerks 15 15.0

Service workers and shop sales workers 14 14.0

Craft and related workers 0 0

Plant and machine operators and assemblers 0 0

Non-skilled workers 2 2.0

Students 19 19.0

Housewives 13 13.0

34

As Cathay Pacific Airways was an international airline, it was expected that the

respondents belonged to different nationalities all over the world. More than

85% of the respondents were at least tertiary educated of non – degree course

/ degree course and postgraduate or above.

According to the table 4.1, 37% of the respondents were managers and

administrators / professional / associate professionals, 19% were students,

15% were clerks, 14% were service workers and shop sales workers, 13%

were housewives and 2% were non-skilled workers.

4.2 Travel pattern results

Respondents were asked to state their travel pattern and the results were

summarized in Table 4.2. There was a very high proportion of respondents

travelling by Economy Class (81%), 19% of respondents were travelling by

Business Class and there were no respondents travelling by First class. The

results were quite reasonable as the seat capacity was in uneven distribution

pattern. The economy class was definitely the highest proportion of seat

capacity compare with other cabins in an aircraft.

The result showed that the study could not comprehensively to evaluate the

perceptions of service quality in various categories of cabin class. It was

35

because there was missing the first class profile. Besides, due to limitation of

time and the number of interviewers, the researcher could only collect the data

for 3 days. The researcher reached the respondents who were traveling in first

class and business class. Therefore, the researcher recommended that the

further research interview could be conducted with Cathay Pacific Airways

passengers in all cabin class.

Table 4.2 Travel pattern of Cathay Pacific Airways passengers Demographic characteristics Frequency (N = 100) Percentage (%)Class of cabin First Class 0 0

Business Class 19 19.0

Economy Class 81 81.0

Frequency of travel 1-6 flights 85 85.0

7-12 flights 15 15.0

More than 12 flights 0 0

Purpose of travel Company business 8 8.0

Education 2 2.0

Attend trade show / convention 5 5.0

Migration 0 0

Visiting friends and relative 9 9.0

Package holiday 39 39.0

Independent holiday 37 37.0

Other 0 0

Travel plan on future Yes 62 62

No 0 0

May be 38 38

36

The results in Table 4.2 showed that 85% of the respondents who traveled with

Cathay Pacific Airways were about 1 to 6 times in the past 12 months. The rest

of the respondents (15%) stated that they traveled abroad with Cathay Pacific

Airways at about 7 to 12 times in the past 12 months.

Regarding the respondents’ purpose of travel for the current trip, some

respondents had chosen more than one purpose but the interviewer

immediately clarified on the question. The purposes of travel fell into the

following categories: Over 85% of the respondents reported their purpose of

travel for the current trip was enjoying holiday. For those with holiday purpose,

39% of the respondents were package holiday travelers and 37% of the

respondents were independent holiday travelers and 9% of the respondents

were with the purpose of visiting friends and family.

There were 13% of the respondents were on business purpose, which 8% of

respondents were for company business and 5% of respondents were for

attending trade shows or conventions. The remaining 2% respondents were for

education. The results indicated that all those with business purpose, either for

company business or attending trade shows or conventions were the most

popular travelling purpose of the Cathay Pacific Airways passengers. These

37

results might due to the period of surveying. Since the survey was conducted

in February, it was the peak season of holiday travel.

No respondents stated that they would not travel by Cathay Pacific Airways in

the future. 62% of respondents indicated that they would travel by Cathay

Pacific Airways and the remaining 38% stated that they might consider Cathay

Pacific Airways as their carriers. The results showed that all the passengers of

Cathay Pacific Airways perceived a high quality service. And they were willing

and expecting to travel by Cathay Pacific Airways again. It indicated that the

service quality perception of Cathay Pacific Airway passengers was positive.

4.3 Importance of service quality dimensions

The questionnaire also asked the respondents to prioritize the service quality

dimensions, from 1, being the least importance, to 5, being the most

importance and the findings are given in Table 4.3.

In the table, it showed that Cathay Pacific Airways passengers thought the

most important dimension of service quality was ‘Empathy’, followed by

‘Tangibles’, Reliability’, ‘Responsiveness’ and ‘Assurance’. It was unmatched

the findings of Sultan and Simpson (2000). Sultan and Simpson (2000) found

38

that the SERVQUAL factor of ‘Reliability’ was the most important dimension of

service quality among air passengers.

This might imply that the Cathay Pacific Airways passengers were likely to

concern about the personal services and attentions by the airlines and they

were the most important elements for their choices of an airline. Therefore, the

customer services which provided by the airlines was a very important element

to retain the customers.

Table 4.3 Importance of service quality dimensions

Service quality dimensions N Mean Std. Deviation Empathy 100 3.52 1.47354

Tangibles 100 3.17 1.40745

Reliability 100 3.04 1.63867

Responsiveness 100 2.75 1.01876

Assurance 100 2.54 1.27462

Mean: 1 = the Least important; 5 = the most important

4.4 Means of perceived service quality

Customer perceptions were measured on a 5-point Likert scale, the highest of

score, and the greater level of agreement. The mean and average mean

scores of the 22 SERVQUAL statements were shown in Table 4.4.

Respondents presented their perception of service quality with different levels

of agreement.

39

The dimension of ‘Tangible’ got the highest average mean scores (3.92). By

contrast with Table 4.3, ‘Tangible’ was the second highest important dimension

of service quality, it showed that the respondents agreed that Cathay Pacific

Airways could provide a high standard of service quality of what the

respondents needed.

Comparing with other five service quality dimensions, the dimension of

‘Responsiveness’ obtained the lowest average mean (3.55). It indicated that it

was the area that Cathay Pacific Airways needed to improve their service.

Many respondents raised that the employees of Cathay Pacific Airways were

always too busy to respond to customer requests. Although the respondents

stated that the dimension of ‘Responsiveness’ was relatively unimportant when

comparing with the others service quality dimensions (Table 4.3).The

employee’s behavior was a critical factor and could be directly correlated to

shaping the perception of the organization’s image. If Cathay Pacific Airways

aimed to provide excellent service quality to their passengers, it is essential to

improve those service areas.

40

Table 4.4 Means of perceived service quality (N = 100) Attribute Mean Average Mean

Tangible 3.92

1. Up to date aircrafts and in-flight facilities 3.97

2. Physical facilities are visually appealing 3.84

3. Employees appear neat 4.01

4. The aircraft has clean and comfortable interiors and seats 3.89

Reliability 3.87

5. When Cathay Pacific Airways promises to do something by a certain time, they will do

so

3.77

6. When a customer has a problem, Cathay Pacific Airways shows a sincere interest in

solving it

3.69

7. Cathay Pacific Airways is dependable 3.96

8. Maintains a punctual flying schedule 3.77

9. Ensures safety of flying 4.17

Responsiveness 3.55

10. Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways tell its customers exactly when services will be

performed

3.51

11. Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways give prompt service to customers 3.55

12. Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are always willing to help customers 3.80

13. Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are never too busy to respond to customer

requests

3.32

Assurance 3.71

14. You can trust employees of Cathay Pacific Airways 3.65

15. You feel secure and safe during the payment transactions with Cathay Pacific 3.83

16. Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are polite and courteous 3.81

17. Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways have the knowledge to answer customers'

enquiry

3.55

Empathy 3.64

18. Cathay Pacific Airways gives you individual attention 3.53

19. Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways give you personal attention 3.55

20. Cathay Pacific Airways has convenient flight schedules and enough frequencies 3.89

21. Cathay Pacific Airways has your best interest at heart 3.67

22. Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways understand your specific needs 3.57

41

4.5 Means and Rank of 22 SERVQUAL service quality statements

5-point Likert scale was used to measure the level of agreement of each

statement, from 1, being strongly disagree to 5, strongly agree in Table 4.5.The

higher mean indicated the attribute had reached the higher level of agreement.

To find out the customer perception of each statement, the means of 22

SERVQUAL statements had been ranked and also been shown in Table 4.5.

All the items scored 3 or above on the 5-point Likert scale, indicated that

respondents had the perception of above average for all dimensions. On the

other hand, Cathay’s passenger perception of its service was excellent and it

could provide their service consistently in order to meet the passenger’s needs.

Delivering superior service quality was a fundamental factor for success and

survival in today’s competitive business environment. That was the reason of

why Cathay Pacific Airways had established a reputation for providing

excellent service quality, as the same as what the researcher mentioned

before in the introduction of this study.

Question 9, the attribute of ‘Ensure safety of flying’ had the highest mean

scores in those 22 SERVQUAL statements, which indicated that the safety

attribute was respondents’ most concerned area to choose Cathay Pacific

42

Airways as their carriers. This was consistent with Cathay Pacific’s mission to

maintain an excellent safety record.

Consisted with other four statements which ranked the top five in Table 4.5,

which were ‘Employees appear neat’ (mean = 4.01), ‘Up to date aircrafts and

in-flight facilities’ (mean = 3.97), ‘Cathay Pacific Airways is dependable’ (mean

= 3.96) and ‘The aircraft has clean and comfortable interiors and seats’ (mean

= 3.89). The top five attributes were the service quality components that

Cathay Pacific Airways dedicated to maintain their reputation. From the above

findings, it showed that passengers had a high impression on the dimension of

‘Tangible’. Because the top five attributes which were consisted three of the

‘Tangible’ components.

Table 4.5 Means and Rank of 22 SERVQUAL service quality statements (N = 100)

Dimension Attribute Mean Std.

Deviation Reliability Ensures safety of flying 4.17 0.766

Tangible Employees appear neat 4.01 0.703

Tangible Up to date aircrafts and in-flight facilities 3.97 0.744

Reliability Cathay Pacific Airways is dependable 3.96 0.803

Tangible The aircraft has clean and comfortable

interiors and seats

3.89 0.695

Empathy Cathay Pacific Airways has convenient flight

schedules and enough frequencies

3.89 0.777

43

Tangible Physical facilities are visually appealing 3.84 0.721

Assurance You feel secure and safe during the payment

transactions with Cathay Pacific Airways

3.83 0.766

Assurance Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are

polite and courteous

3.81 0.647

Responsiveness Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are

always willing to help customers

3.80 0.682

Reliability When Cathay Pacific Airways promises to do

something by a certain time, they will do so

3.77 0.777

Reliability Maintains a punctual flying schedule 3.77 0.680

Reliability When a customer has a problem, Cathay

Pacific Airways shows a sincere interest in

solving it

3.69 0.692

Empathy Cathay Pacific Airways has your best

interest at heart

3.67 0.779

Assurance You can trust employees of Cathay Pacific

Airways

3.65 0.687

Empathy Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways

understand your specific needs

3.57 0.607

Empathy Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways give

you personal attention

3.55 0.744

Responsiveness Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways give

prompt service to customers

3.55 0.702

Assurance Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways have

the knowledge to answer customers’ enquiry

3.55 0.716

Empathy Cathay Pacific Airways gives you individual

attention

3.53 0.731

Responsiveness Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways tell its

customers exactly when services will be

performed

3.51 0.732

Responsiveness Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are

never too busy to respond to customer

requests

3.32 0.665

44

Table 4.5 question 10 ‘Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways tell its customers

exactly when services will be performed’ and question 13 ‘Employees of

Cathay Pacific Airways are never too busy to respond to customer requests’

were the lowest rank of SERVQUAL statements at score of 3.51 and 3.32

respectively. The issue of responsiveness had become the service quality

failure of Cathay Pacific Airways. A detailed analysis of the ‘responsiveness’

dimensions were resulted in two situations.

Firstly, the importance of core service appeared to be clear such as baggage

check-in processes and the quality of reservation services. The second

situation was the service providers, such as the employees of Cathay Pacific

Airways in their responsiveness dimensions. It showed that the standard of

service quality was depending on how well the employees presented to the

customers. The employees were the frontline staff who delivered the real

quality service level of the airline to the passengers. Nowadays, customer are

seeking for a quick and prompt responded and wanted to know the actual

performance duration, so Cathay Pacific should cope with this trend in order to

increase their service quality standard in the ‘Responsiveness’ dimension.

45

4.6 Passengers perception differences by genders

To investigate the difference of passenger perceptions by gender, an

independent sample t-test was conducted for male and female passengers

(Table 4.6). To examine the attributes of influencing service quality perception

of Cathay Pacific Airways passengers, there were no other service quality

attributes significantly different from male and female passengers. This might

reflect that male and female passengers had the similar perception on the

service quality of Cathay Pacific Airways.

Table 4.6 Passengers perception differences by genders (Independent sample t-test)

Attribute Mean

t-value Sig. level

Male (N=46)

Female (N=54)

Up to date aircrafts and in-flight facilities 3.93 4 -0.427 0.67

Physical facilities are visually appealing 3.74 3.93 -1.296 0.198

Employees appear neat 4 4.02 -0.131 0.896

The aircraft has clean and comfortable interiors

and seats

3.78 3.98 -1.434 0.155

When Cathay Pacific Airways promises to do

something by a certain time, they will do so

3.88 3.7 0.924 0.358

When a customer has a problem, Cathay Pacific

Airways shows a sincere interest in solving it

3.76 3.63 0.945 0.347

Cathay Pacific Airways is dependable 4 3.93 0.458 0.648

Maintains a punctual flying schedule 3.78 3.76 0.17 0.865

Ensures safety of flying 4.13 4.2 -0.475 0.636

Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways tell its

customers exactly when services will be

performed

3.57 3.46 0.695 0.489

46

Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways give

prompt service to customers

3.57 3.54 0.199 0.843

Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are always

willing to help customers

3.85 3.76 0.646 0.52

Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are never

too busy to respond to customer requests

3.41 3.24 1.296 0.198

You can trust employees of Cathay Pacific

Airways

3.72 3.59 0.904 0.368

You feel secure and safe during the payment


3.89 3.78 0.737 0.463

Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are polite

and courteous

3.8 3.81 -0.08 0.936

Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways have the

knowledge to answer customers' enquiry

3.5217 3.5741 -0.363 0.718

Cathay Pacific Airways gives you individual

attention

3.61 3.46 0.993 0.323

Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways give you

personal attention

3.67 3.44 1.549 0.125

Cathay Pacific Airways has convenient flight

schedules and enough frequencies

3.89 3.89 0.015 0.988

Cathay Pacific Airways has your best interest at

heart

3.72 3.63 0.559 0.577

Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways understand

your specific needs

3.63 3.51 0.918 0.361

*Indicates significance level

47

heart’.

The means score of the youngest age group of 18 – 29 years old and the

oldest age groups over 60 years old were significantly higher than those of the

other age groups. This indicated that those two groups of passengers

commented that the employees of Cathay Pacific Airways were really helpful.

On the other hand, these two groups of passengers were the groups that

required highest demand for assistance by the employees of airlines. Because

younger passengers were lack of the travel experience, they might try to ask

for help initiatively. This would increase the interaction between employees of

Cathy Pacific Airways and the younger passengers. It could also increase the

chance to build up a good impression on the service quality perception.

Besides, the oldest passengers group also requested assistance of the airline

staff frequently. Comparing the attributes means on ‘Cathay Pacific Airways

has your best interest at heart’, it appeared that the younger groups between

18 – 39 years old were more likely to agree the ‘Cathay Pacific has their best

interest at heart’. This might have resulted from the fact that Cathay Pacific

Airways always launch the new products which the youngsters were interested

in, such as the in-flight entertainment system and the online check-in services.

48

Table 4.7 Passengers perception differences by age (ANOVA)

Attribute

Mean

F-value Sig. level

18-29 (N=34)

30-39 (N=24)

40-49 (N=23)

50-59 (N=16)

over 60

(N=3) Up to date aircrafts and in-flight

facilities

3.88 4.04 4.04 4 3.67 0.338 0.852

Physical facilities are visually

appealing

3.85 3.88 3.83 3.94 3 1.116 0.354

Employees appear neat 4.03 4 4 4 4 0.009 1

The aircraft has clean and

comfortable interiors and seats

3.97 3.83 3.83 4 3.33 0.778 0.542

When Cathay Pacific Airways

promises to do something by a

certain time, they will do so

3.74 3.75 3.87 3.69 4 0.219 0.927

When a customer has a

problem, Cathay Pacific

Airways shows a sincere

interest in solving it

3.74 3.71 3.61 3.75 3.33 0.34 0.85

Cathay Pacific Airways is

dependable

3.94 4 3.91 4.13 3.33 0.656 0.624

Maintains a punctual flying

schedule

3.85 3.83 3.7 3.63 3.67 0.437 0.782

Ensures safety of flying 4.15 4.21 4.22 4.19 3.67 0.361 0.836

Employees of Cathay Pacific

Airways tell its customers

exactly when services will be

performed

3.53 3.63 3.35 3.63 3 0.896 0.469


Airways give prompt service to

customers

3.74 3.46 3.35 3.63 3.33 1.305 0.274


Airways are always willing to

help customers

4.03 3.75 3.43 3.88 4 2.979 .023*


Airways are never too busy to

respond to customer requests

3.47 3.13 3.22 3.44 3.33 1.225 0.305

You can trust employees of 3.85 3.63 3.43 3.63 3.33 1.508 0.206

49

Cathay Pacific Airways

You feel secure and safe

during the payment

transactions with Cathay

Pacific Airways

3.82 3.83 3.78 3.88 4 0.071 0.991


Airways are polite and

courteous

3.82 3.83 3.65 4 3.67 0.728 0.575


Airways have the knowledge to

answer customers' enquiry

3.68 3.54 3.48 3.5 3 0.779 0.542

Cathay Pacific Airways gives

you individual attention

3.65 3.46 3.48 3.56 3 0.698 0.595


Airways give you personal

attention

3.56 3.5 3.65 3.56 3 0.538 0.708

Cathay Pacific Airways has

convenient flight schedules and

enough frequencies

4.12 3.71 3.83 3.81 3.67 1.208 0.313


your best interest at heart

3.97 3.71 3.43 3.44 3 2.925 .025*


Airways understand your

specific needs

3.71 3.58 3.43 3.56 3 1.397 0.241


50

The means score of the British was significantly higher than the other

nationalities of passengers. It might reflect that the route between Hong Kong

and the United Kingdom was the major route with highly completive

environment. The major competitor of Cathay Pacific Airways on this routing

liked Virgin Atlantic which was famous for providing personal services to their

passengers. Cathay Pacific Airways needed to provide excellent service

quality as well as personal attention to their passengers to get the competitive

advantages. It was the reason why the British passenger gave higher scores

on this attributes when comparing to the others nationalities.

Table 4.8 Passengers perception differences by nationalities (ANOVA)

Attribute Mean

F-valueSig. level

1 2 3 4 5 6

(N=36) (N=11) (N=17) (N=14) (N=6) (N=16)

Up to date aircrafts and in-flight

facilities

3.83 4.27 4.06 4.21 4.17 3.69 1.482 0.203


appealing

3.78 4 3.94 4 4 3.56 0.896 0.487

Employees appear neat 4 4 4 4.21 4 3.875 0.345 0.884


comfortable interiors and seats

3.83 3.91 3.94 4.21 3.83 3.69 0.956 0.449

When Cathay Pacific Airways

promises to do something by a

certain time, they will do so

3.47 3.91 3.76 4 4.17 4 2.075 0.075

When a customer has a problem,

Cathay Pacific Airways shows a

sincere interest in solving it

3.53 3.73 3.77 3.79 3.83 3.81 0.635 0.673

Cathay Pacific Airways is dependable 3.83 4.36 4.12 4.14 4.17 3.56 1.966 0.091

Maintains a punctual flying schedule 3.56 3.73 3.88 3.93 4 3.94 1.325 0.26

51

Ensures safety of flying 4.11 4.46 4.12 4.21 4.33 4.06 0.476 0.793

Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways

tell its customers exactly when

services will be performed

3.42 3.36 3.53 4 3.33 3.44 1.614 0.164


give prompt service to customers

3.5 3.27 3.65 3.93 3.17 3.56 1.674 0.148


are always willing to help customers

3.78 3.73 3.82 4.14 3.5 3.69 1.068 0.383


are never too busy to respond to

customer requests

3.17 3.27 3.36 3.57 3.33 3.44 0.899 0.485

You can trust employees of Cathay

Pacific Airways

3.56 3.55 3.59 3.93 3.5 3.81 0.906 0.48

You feel secure and safe during the

payment transactions with Cathay

Pacific Airways

3.72 4.18 3.71 4.21 3.5 3.75 1.718 0.138


are polite and courteous

3.72 3.64 3.82 4.21 3.67 3.81 1.482 0.203


have the knowledge to answer

customers' enquiry

3.58 3.46 3.41 4 3.33 3.38 1.64 0.157

Cathay Pacific Airways gives you

individual attention

3.44 3.09 3.71 3.86 3.17 3.69 2.224 0.058


give you personal attention

3.36 3.27 3.59 4.07 3.5 3.69 2.435 .040*


convenient flight schedules and

enough frequencies

3.83 3.64 3.88 4.21 3.67 4 0.92 0.472

Cathay Pacific Airways has your best

interest at heart

3.58 3.27 3.71 3.86 3.67 3.94 1.22 0.306


understand your specific needs

3.56 3.45 3.65 3.79 3.5 3.44 0.648 0.664


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4.9 Passengers perception differences by education level

Since the attributes influencing service quality perception of Cathay Pacific

Airways passengers were examined by one-way ANOVA, there were no other

service quality attributes to be significantly different by educational level. This

might reflect that various educational levels of passengers had similar

perception on the service quality of Cathay Pacific Airways and different

education level would not influence the passengers’ perception on the service

quality.

Table 4.9 Passengers perception differences by education level (ANOVA)

Attribute Mean

F-value Sig. level

1 2 3 4 5

(N=4) (N=10) (N=27) (N=46) (N=13)

Up to date aircrafts and in-flight facilities

4.5 4.1 3.78 3.98 4.08 1.065 0.378

Physical facilities are visually appealing

4 3.8 3.89 3.83 3.77 0.119 0.975

Employees appear neat 4.25 4.1 4.22 3.87 3.92 1.295 0.278The aircraft has clean and comfortable interiors and seats

4.75 3.9 3.78 3.93 3.69 2.11 0.086

When Cathay Pacific Airways promises to do something by a certain time, they will do so

4 3.6 3.74 3.8 3.77 0.232 0.92

When a customer has a problem, Cathay Pacific Airways shows a sincere interest in solving it

4 3.4 3.63 3.78 3.62 0.933 0.448

Cathay Pacific Airways is dependable 4.5 3.8 3.63 4.11 4.08 2.268 0.068Maintains a punctual flying schedule 3.25 3.8 3.63 3.89 3.77 1.258 0.292

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Ensures safety of flying 4.5 4 4.11 4.24 4.08 0.48 0.75Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways tell its customers exactly when services will be performed

3.75 3.6 3.33 3.48 3.85 1.26 0.291

Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways give prompt service to customers

4 3.7 3.44 3.52 3.62 0.717 0.583

Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are always willing to help customers

4.25 3.8 3.63 3.85 3.85 0.926 0.452

Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are never too busy to respond to customer requests

3.5 3.2 3.22 3.41 3.23 0.574 0.682

You can trust employees of Cathay Pacific Airways

4.25 3.6 3.56 3.7 3.54 1.041 0.39

You feel secure and safe during the payment transactions with Cathay Pacific Airways

4 3.8 3.67 3.8 4.23 1.276 0.285

Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are polite and courteous

3.75 3.8 3.93 3.72 3.92 0.551 0.699

Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways have the knowledge to answer customers' enquiry

4.25 3.6 3.52 3.5 3.54 1.04 0.391

Cathay Pacific Airways gives you individual attention

3.5 3.6 3.56 3.54 3.38 0.16 0.958

Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways give you personal attention

3.75 3.4 3.48 3.59 3.62 0.277 0.892

Cathay Pacific Airways has convenient flight schedules and enough frequencies

4 4.1 3.78 3.87 4 0.406 0.804

Cathay Pacific Airways has your best interest at heart

3.75 3.4 3.52 3.87 3.46 1.59 0.183

Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways understand your specific needs

3.75 3.4 3.52 3.61 3.62 0.387 0.817


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4.10 Passengers perception differences by seat class

To investigate the differences of passenger perceptions by seat class, one-way

ANOVA was conducted for both business and economy class passengers

(Table 4.10). When attributes influencing Cathay Pacific Airways passengers’

service quality perception were examined, all the attributes of business class

scored higher than the mean score of economy class and scored 3 or above

on the 5-point Likert scale. It indicated that business class passengers had a

higher service quality perception than economy passengers.

Furthermore, there were 14 attributes out of 22 were found to be significantly

different between business class and economy class which included an

attribute was highly significantly (Table 4.10). The means of business class

passengers for these 14 attributes were significantly higher than economy

class passengers.

‘Employees appear neat’ and ‘the aircraft has clean and comfortable interiors

and seats’ were two tangible attributes. The result was expected because

business class passengers were provided with much better in-flight services

than economy class passengers. The business cabin was exceptional comfort

as well as high privacy with cozy surroundings. Business class seat contained

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massage function and easy access to the aisle, the mood lighting to enhance

passenger flying experience and when it was time to sleep, passengers simply

pressed a button to turn the seat into a perfectly flat bed. Furthermore, the air

hostesses who were responsible to provide service in business class were

experienced. So that the service quality perception of business class

passengers of these two attributes were higher than economy class

passengers.

The passengers who traveled in business class rated ‘when Cathay Pacific

Airways promises to do something by a certain time, they will do so’

significantly higher than passengers who travelled in economy. This might

reflect that Cathay Pacific Airways played more concern on the business class

passengers and they would like to put more effort to finish the task or provide

the service what they were promised to do before the deadline. Cathay Pacific

Airways did not want to lose the business class passengers who paid at a

higher rate than who travelled in economy.

Respondents who traveled in business class rated ‘Employees of Cathay

Pacific Airways give prompt service to customers’, ‘Employees of Cathay

Pacific Airways are always willing to help customers’ and ‘Employees of

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Cathay Pacific Airways are never too busy to respond to customer requests’ to

be significantly higher than those who traveled in economy class. And these

three attributes were responsiveness dimensions. This was expected as

Cathay Pacific Airways offered many different kind of services which were

related to the needs of business class passengers, such as business class

passengers had designated special check-in area at the airport, business class

lounge and pier service centre. All those service could enhance the service

quality perception of business class passengers.

The passengers who traveled in business class indicated all attributes of

assurance dimensions significantly higher than passengers who travelled in

economy class including ‘You can trust employees of Cathay Pacific Airways’,

‘You feel secure and safe during the payment transactions with Cathay Pacific

Airways’, ‘Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are polite and courteous’ and

‘Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways have the knowledge to answer

customers' enquiry’. The result showed that the business class passengers

had a higher service quality perception than economy class passengers. It was

because the business class passengers raised their enquiries more frequent

as they were frequent traveler. And most of the business class passengers had

transaction with Cathay Pacific directly, such as online booking and online

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check in. It was different from economy class passengers setting their payment

transaction with travel agents.

Table 4.10 Passengers perception differences by seat class (ANOVA)

Attribute Mean

F-valueSig. level

First Business Economy

(N=81) (N=0) (N=19)

Up to date aircrafts and in-flight facilities NIL 4.26 3.90 3.599 0.061

Physical facilities are visually appealing NIL 3.89 3.83 0.134 0.715

Employees appear neat NIL 4.37 3.93 6.423 .013*

The aircraft has clean and comfortable interiors and

seats

NIL 4.21 3.81 5.204 .025*

When Cathay Pacific Airways promises to do something

by a certain time, they will do so

NIL 4.11 3.69 4.527 .036*

When a customer has a problem, Cathay Pacific

Airways shows a sincere interest in solving it

NIL 3.79 3.67 0.482 0.489

Cathay Pacific Airways is dependable NIL 4.16 3.91 1.431 0.235

Maintains a punctual flying schedule NIL 3.89 3.74 0.789 0.377

Ensures safety of flying NIL 4.21 4.16 0.065 0.799

Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways tell its customers

exactly when services will be performed

NIL 3.74 3.46 2.284 0.134

Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways give prompt

service to customers

NIL 3.95 3.46 8.058 .006*

Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are always willing

to help customers

NIL 4.21 3.70 9.214 .003*

Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are never too

busy to respond to customer requests

NIL 3.79 3.21 13.129 .000**

You can trust employees of Cathay Pacific Airways NIL 4.00 3.57 6.418 .013*

You feel secure and safe during the payment


NIL 4.16 3.75 4.446 .038*

Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways are polite and

courteous

NIL 4.21 3.72 9.801 .002*

Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways have the

knowledge to answer customers' enquiry

NIL 4.00 3.44 10.12 .002*

Cathay Pacific Airways gives you individual attention NIL 3.95 3.43 8.202 .005*

Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways give you personal NIL 4.00 3.44 9.31 .003*

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attention

Cathay Pacific Airways has convenient flight schedules

and enough frequencies

NIL 4.16 3.83 2.839 0.095

Cathay Pacific Airways has your best interest at heart NIL 4.00 3.59 4.349 .040*

Employees of Cathay Pacific Airways understand your

specific needs

NIL 3.95 3.48 9.869 .002*


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service quality perception attributes. That was ‘Employees of Cathay Pacific

Airways give you personal attention’ and ‘Cathay Pacific Airways has your best

interest at heart’. When comparing the passengers groups who were students,

managers or administrators, it was find that students scored the overall service

quality significant lower than managers and administrators passengers.

It was because the student travelers usually travelling by Cathay Pacific

Airways were during the public holiday such as summer holiday or Christmas.

It was known as the peak season of airline industry. During this period, the

airline needed to pay attention on handling such large amount of passengers

and it made a heavy pressure on the operation sector. So that it was hard to

demand Cathay Pacific Airways to pay attention on every individual needs.

On the other hand, the student travelers who were always having less travel

experience or they were too young to travel to foreign countries individually,

they might feel depress if the airline could not provide any assistance. That

was why the student travelers gave relatively low score in these two attributes.

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Table 4.11 Passengers perception differences by occupation (ANOVA)

Attribute Mean F-

Sig.

level1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 value

(N=10) (N=13) (N=14) (N=15) (N=14) (N=0) (N=0) (N=2) (N=19) (N=19)

Up to date aircrafts and

in-flight facilities

4.1 4 4 3.87 4.21 NIL NIL 4 3.68 4.08 0.703 0.669


appealing

3.9 3.85 3.71 3.93 4 NIL NIL 4 3.79 3.69 0.295 0.954

Employees appear neat 4.1 3.69 4.21 4 4.43 NIL NIL 4.5 3.74 3.92 1.985 0.065


comfortable interiors and

seats

4.2 3.77 3.86 3.8 3.86 NIL NIL 3.5 3.89 4 0.504 0.83

When Cathay Pacific

Airways promises to do

something by a certain time,

they will do so

4.3 3.46 3.86 3.73 4.14 NIL NIL 3.5 3.53 3.62 1.947 0.071

When a customer has a

problem, Cathay Pacific

Airways shows a sincere

interest in solving it

3.9 3.46 3.86 3.8 3.93 NIL NIL 4 3.63 3.23 1.721 0.114

Cathay Pacific Airways is

dependable

4.3 3.92 3.93 3.8 3.93 NIL NIL 4 3.89 4.08 0.392 0.905

Maintains a punctual flying

schedule

3.9 3.54 4 3.8 4 NIL NIL 3.5 3.74 3.46 1.179 0.322

Ensures safety of flying 4.1 4.23 4 4.4 4.29 NIL NIL 4 4.11 4.08 0.404 0.898


Airways tell its customers

exactly when services will be

performed

4.1 3.31 3.43 3.33 3.64 NIL NIL 3.5 3.53 3.38 1.379 0.224


Airways give prompt service

to customers

3.8 3.31 3.79 3.27 3.79 NIL NIL 3.5 3.53 3.46 1.26 0.279


Airways are always willing to

help customers

4.1 3.46 4 3.47 3.93 NIL NIL 4.5 3.89 3.69 2.028 0.06


Airways are never too busy

to respond to customer

3.7 3.08 3.64 3.13 3.21 NIL NIL 4 3.32 3.15 1.942 0.072

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requests

You can trust employees of

Cat

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