Investigating Customer Satisfaction of Airline Passengers in Aviation Sector of Pakistan

This study aims to measure customer satisfaction by exploring service quality, trust and physical environment as drivers of customer satisfaction in airline industry of Pakistan. The study used a cross-sectional research design. The data collection was done by survey research method through a structured, adopted, modified and self-administered questionnaire. There were 576 questionnaires that were distributed to passengers of three airlines namely; Pakistan International Airline (PIA), Shaheen International Airline (SAI) and Air Blue (ABQ), in five airports of Pakistan. The hypothesis were tested simultaneously on 446 passengers out of 576 questionnaire that were distributed getting a response rate of 71 %. The data was analyzed using SPSS (version 21.0) and PLS-SEM (using Smart PLS version 3.2.8) at the 0.05 critical level. The study findings were in line with previous research and expectation disconfirmation theory (EDT) of customer satisfaction. The findings have shown significant association among variables that were examined in the study. Despite the significant association among trust, physical environment and service quality, this study is an addition in the theoretical knowledge of airline industry of Pakistan. Additionally, the study explores influence of trust, physical environment and service quality and their association to how the passengers perceive the service quality, physical environment and their level of trust on service providers whether the passengers are satisfied or not from the international airlines of Pakistan. Also, this study deliver understandings for future research in service marketing area and help travel agencies to employ the implementation of role of service quality, customer trust and physical environment as main drivers of customer satisfaction.