Airline Service Satisfaction

This analysis will focus on customer or consumer satisfaction as it relates to the airline industry. Current trends in the airline industry demonstrate that the best rated airlines for customer satisfaction are not airlines that are forming alliances with other industry carriers. In addition, while overall customer satisfaction for short and long haul flights has been improving, the gulf between the best rated and worst rated airlines with respect to customer satisfaction is widening. Efforts to meet or exceed customer expectations have been an increasingly important aspect of airline management. Strategies from reduced fares to adding value to airport terminals (shops, restaurants, personal services) exist as carriers try to distinguish themselves with consumers as having the highest levels of service. As of this writing, TWA and Americ

. . .
that, the airline’s low fares from East Coast cities to Florida had force rival carriers to cut their fares to compete—a move immediately rescinded when ValuJet left the market” (Blake 38). This example makes it obvious how significant external environment factors can be when it comes to impeding an air carrier’s efforts to improve its customer satisfaction levels through pricing strategies. Even though ValuJet intends to return to the East Coast market, albeit with reduced service, other competitors have taken advantage of their absence to fill the low-fare niche ValuJet had successfully tapped prior to the crash. Other carriers, aware of the market gains made by ValuJet because of its low-cost fares, used the absence of ValuJet from the market to acquire that same market. The ValuJet example shows not only how costly it can be to an airline to suffer the negative effects of an airliner crash, but also how competitive the industry players are when it comes to competitive attempts to acquire market share from other companies in the industry. One such company is Southwest Airlines, which has made an effort to replace ValuJet as the low-cost East Coast to Florida carrier, “Consumers who miss the cheap fares ValuJet brought t
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Department Transportation, Vol II, America West, Air Bulletin, Holloway Vol, Reagan Administrations, East Coast, West TWA, Airline Customer, Authority BAA, customer satisfaction, airline industry, customer service, america west, airline service, service delivery, airline carriers, levels customer, consumer satisfaction, service providers, customer satisfaction levels, levels customer satisfaction, respect customer satisfaction, service delivery subsystem, performance respect customer,
Approximate Word count = 5266
Approximate Pages = 21 (250 words per page)