The Relationship between Air Travel Service Quality and Factors of Theory of Planned Behavior: Evidence from Low-Cost Airlines in Thailand

Despite an increased emphasis on improvement in airline service quality concerning consumer behavior, such as passenger repurchasing as a result of their behavioral intention over the last several decades, there is still much less concern with the nature of airline service quality than should exist in the so-called "logistics service quality” and less concern with examining the specific behavioral intention preceding repurchasing behavior together with the theory of planned behavior. As such, this study aims to explore these issues, along with the psychological factors of the theory of planned behavior, that can lead to repurchasing behavior via word-of-mouth intention (WOMI). With an online survey of 383 respondents experienced with flying, the results reveal that the logistics service quality and each determinant in the theory positively influence a passenger's repurchasing behavior through WOMI. Accordingly, service marketers can implement service design and apply integrated marketing communication by learning from repurchasing behavior that was formed by the given factors to retain their existing customers. Moreover, this study is the first to empirically and explicitly validate dimensions of airline services through the lens of logistics that are deemed fit with the nature of the airlines. It advances the understanding of theory approaching and connects what has hampered its advancement in a body of knowledge, simultaneously in a context of airline context where it should not be relegated to transportation and consumer and service orientation.

A Three-Stage Hybrid SEM-BN-ANN Approach for Analyzing Airport Service Quality

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has impacted the aviation industry worldwide. Several restrictions and regulations have been implemented to prevent the virus's spread and maintain airport operations. To recover the trustworthiness of air travelers in the new normality, improving airport service quality (ASQ) is necessary, ultimately increasing passenger satisfaction in airports. This research focuses on the relationship between passenger satisfaction and the ASQ dimensions of airports in Thailand. A three-stage analysis model was conducted by integrating structural equation modeling, Bayesian networks, and artificial neural networks to identify critical ASQ dimensions that highly impact overall satisfaction. The findings reveal that airport facilities, wayfinding, and security are three dominant dimensions influencing overall passenger satisfaction. This insight could help airport managers and operators recover passenger satisfaction, increase trustworthiness, and maintain the efficiency of the airports in not only this severe crisis but also in the new normality.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on airlines' passenger satisfaction.

This study aims to understand airline passengers' satisfaction trends by analyzing the most influential factors on satisfaction before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sample consists of a dataset with 9745 passenger reviews published on airlinequality.com. The reviews were analyzed with a sentiment analysis tool calibrated for the aviation industry for accuracy. Machine learning algorithms were then implemented to predict review sentiment based on airline company, travelers' type and class, and country of origin. Findings show passengers were unhappy before the pandemic, aggravated after the COVID-19 outbreak. The staff's behavior is the main factor influencing passengers' satisfaction. Predictive modeling showed that it is possible to predict negative review sentiments with satisfactory performance rather than positive reviews. The main takeaway is that passengers, after the pandemic, are most worried about refunds and aircraft cabin cleanliness. From a managerial standpoint, airline companies can benefit from the created knowledge to adjust their strategies in agreement and meet their customers' expectations.

Impact Of WEBQUAL on Backpacker Loyalty in Online Booking Retailer: Mediating Roles of Trust and Engagement: Acces la Success

The research objectives is to examine the causality relationship that occurs between WEBQUAL, trust, engagement, and backpacker loyalty. This study adopted data sourced from the backpacker community members in Southeast Sulawesi Province, Indonesia as respondents who made online bookings at four online booking retailers, namely;Traveloka.com, Tiket.com, Alibaba.com, and Pegipegi.com. The number of the backpacker community members as respondents is 176 respondents. Testing of causality is done by using Partial Least Squared (PLS). The research found are WEBQUAL which consists of information, system, and service quality has a significant direct effect on trust and engagement. Other found in this research are trust and engagement had a significant direct effect on backpacker loyalty. Furthermore, this research found are WEBQUAL which consists of;information, system, and service quality have a significant indirect effect on backpacker loyalty through the mediating role of trust and engagement.

Airline catering supply chain performance during pandemic disruption: a Bayesian network modelling approach

PurposeThe supply chain (SC) encompasses all actions related to meeting customer requests and transferring materials upstream to meet those demands. Organisations must operate towards increasing SC efficiency and effectiveness to meet SC objectives. Although most businesses expected the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic to severely negatively impact their SCs, they did not know how to model disruptions or their effects on performance in the event of a pandemic, leading to delayed responses, an incomplete understanding of the pandemic's effects and late deployment of recovery measures. Therefore, this study aims to consider the impact of implementing Bayesian network (BN) modelling to measure SC performance in the airline catering context.Design/methodology/approachThis study presents a method for modelling and quantifying SC performance assessment for airline catering. In the COVID-19 context, the researchers proposed a BN model to measure SC performance and risk events and quantify the consequences of pandemic disruptions.FindingsThe study simulates and measures the impact of different triggers on SC performance and business continuity using forward and backward propagation analysis, among other BN features, enabling us to combine various SC perspectives and explicitly account for pandemic scenarios.Originality/valueThis study's findings offer a fresh theoretical perspective on the use of BNs in pandemic SC disruption modelling. The findings can be used as a decision-making tool to predict and better understand how pandemics affect SC performance.

The impact of security oversight on air cargo price and demand

This paper examines the effect of security oversight on air cargo price and demand. We exploit variations in security oversight instituted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). We estimate a simultaneous equation model using proprietary operations data from a major airline in South Korea over the period 2009–2013. This study explores the shipping-charge behavior of a service provider through a modeling approach that considers air cargo security. Our findings show that security oversight increases air cargo demand, controlling for the effect of price. Improving security measures increases the air cargo price, but the magnitude of this increase is small. Our results should help policymakers gauge the benefit of improved security and help airlines design an effective model to determine future air cargo shipping charges under high uncertainty to mitigate short- and long-term financial risks.

Guest editorial: Performance measurement in supply chains during disruptions: lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic

[...]it becomes essential to understand the PM aspects in the face of emergency situations such as COVID-19. Since the seminal article by Benita Beamon proposing new performance measures for evaluating supply chain performance, the literature has evolved. [...]the guest editors would also like to thank the authors for their contributions and for choosing our special issue as a relevant platform to communicate their research works. The insights drawn from this SI will provide them with effective guidance to help them design, implement and improve performance measurement systems capable of effectively measuring different supply chain processes and issues during unexpected and disruptive events.Table 1 Articles published in this special issue Article Title Purpose 1 Airline catering supply chain performance during pandemic disruption: a Bayesian network modelling approach This study aims to consider the impact of implementing Bayesian network (BN) modelling to measure SC performance in the airline catering during the pandemic context 2 The role of Industry 4.0 technologies on performance measurement systems of supply chains during global pandemics: an interval-valued intuitionistic hesitant fuzzy approach This study aims to investigate supply chain performance measurement systems (SCPMSs) that are suitable and applicable to evaluate SC performance during unexpected events such as global pandemics. [...]it considers the contribution of Industry 4.0 Disruptive Technologies (IDTs) to implement SCPMSs during such black swan events 3 A systematic literature review on supply chain resilience in SMEs: learnings from COVID-19 pandemic This paper presents the state-of-art literature on supply chain resilience in SMEs in the context of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and provides a comprehensive view of insights gained and gaps identified and suggests potential areas of future research 4 A proposed circular-SCOR model for supply chain performance measurement in the manufacturing industry during COVID-19 This study aims to determine which supply chain performance criteria come to the fore for the company under consideration to accelerate the transformation into high performance and circularity in supply chains, considering that the ability to analyse supply chain performances and ensure circularity in supply chains has become one of the factors whose importance has increased rapidly with COVID-19 5 How do food supply chain performance measures contribute to sustainable corporate performance during disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic emergency?

U.S. network and low-cost carriers' performance in response to COVID-19: Strictness of government policies and passengers' panic

Coronavirus outbreak has been highly disruptive for aviation sector. There is strong correlation between COVID-19 related news, volatility in transportation, low confidence in travel safety, and uncertainty in this era. In this research, we study and distinguish the COVID-19's impact on U.S. airlines' performance. The network and low-cost carriers responded differently to it in terms of capacity reduction, market share reduction, scheduled flights reduction, flight cancellations, and service quality in the year 2020. We illustrate low-cost carrier had higher efficiency compared to network ones during pandemic by applying Network Data Envelopment Analysis. Furthermore, the effects of two key factors that emerge from COVID-19, the government's stringency actions and passengers' panic, on U.S. airlines efficiency are studied. Our analysis demonstrate that the negative effect is more significant for passengers' panic than it is for governments' stringency measures. In addition, we show that passengers' panic has more impact on the efficiency of network carriers compared to low-cost carrier.

In-Flight Infection Prevention and Control Training for Cabin Crew in China: A Qualitative Study

Specific in-flight infection prevention and control (IPC) training was deemed an essential strategy for ensuring the implementation of appropriate measures to protect the health of passengers and crew sustainably during COVID-19 and the post-pandemic period. This study aims to identify cabin crew's IPC duties and investigate the current status of the in-flight IPC training for cabin crew in China. The snowballing technique was employed with purposeful sampling. A total of 15 participants, including cabin crew of various positions, inspectors, and trainers from eight airlines in China were invited to attend the in-depth semi-structured interview between September and November of 2022. Cabin crew IPC duties can be classified into four phases based on a thematic analysis: before flight, passenger boarding, during flight, and after flight. The findings indicated airlines in China required their cabin crew to carry out strict IPC measures onboard throughout all stages of flight, including in-flight IPC training before flight, being aware of COVID symptoms and monitoring passengers' conditions during boarding, the standard operating procedure (SOP) of handling suspicious carriers during flight, and so on. Meanwhile, six major themes concerning cabin crew's in-flight IPC training were extracted: COVID-19 information, IPC Supplies and usage, IPC measures onboard, communication and explanation, information collection and report up, attitude and perceptions toward COVID-19, and IPC measures. Cabin crew were regularly trained on in-flight IPC through online learning, with face-to-face training used as reinforcement. Although training for knowledge and technical skills was deemed comprehensive, non-technical skills such as communication and explanation were viewed as a weak link. Moreover, airlines should make greater efforts to help cabin crew develop a positive attitude towards COVID-19 and overcome their internal fears. This study pointed out the shortcomings of the in-flight IPC training for cabin crew in China and can help the airlines improve the training program so that cabin crew can perform their duties correctly. Furthermore, the result can inform the development of future cabin crew training programs for the post-pandemic period.

COVID-19 Pandemic – A Testing Time for Tourism and Hospitality in Thailand

The COVID-19 pandemic has recently led to a global alarm due to its fatal nature from the spread of the coronavirus. Thailand is currently aware of this unprecedented time and the Thai cabinet has imposed a state of emergency to prevent the spread of this virus. The tourism and hospitality sectors have been devastated by the coronavirus. Therefore, the purpose of this study aims to examine the impact on tourism and hospitality including airline and hotel sectors. The study used adopt secondary data from various sources both academic and practitioner as critical discourse analysis for textual analysis and synthesis. Data were obtained from fifty articles discussed in this paper. The paper indicates the impact of the pandemic on tourism, airline and hotel sectors. Moreover, results are also highlighted negative impact on Thailand tourism and hospitality industry from the crisis by proven the decreased number of international tourist arrival. The implementation of social protection, and government aid policy to support people affected by the pandemic is also are presented in the result of this study. In conclusion and implication, this research/paper will further help the industries to take initiative strategies and best policies to be implemented in the future to combat the disease. Future research is also recommended in this study.

Impact of COVID-19 restrictions on South African air transport and tourism indicators

Background: Air travel restrictions to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) impacted air travel to and from and within South Africa significantly. The duration of the pandemic was more protracted than initially expected as new variants of the pandemic (in ‘waves') resulted in additional restrictions. Objectives: To determine the nature of COVID-19-related air travel restrictions, their impact on annual passenger demand, the number of flights operated (supply of services), the related average passenger loads carried as well as on tourism indicators of the direct contribution of travel and tourism, the total contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employment. Method: The study identifies the number of passengers carried and flights operated and calculates the average passenger load per flight and trends. The impact on tourism indicators is based on the unit values of metrics published by the World Travel and Tourism Council for the 2019 calendar year, adapted for the reduction in passengers in the first and second years following the COVID-19 lockdown. Results: Significant decreases in the annual number of passengers carried, flights operated (in the three geographic areas), and their impact on tourism and employment indicators were identified. Conclusion: The decline in passengers exceeded the decrease in flights operated, which resulted in a decline in the average load of passengers carried per flight. The significance of COVID-19 restrictions on tourism indicators and employment was also calculated. Contribution: The study identifies the impact of COVID-19 air travel restrictions on both air transport and tourism indicators for South Africa.

Analyzing airlines stock price volatility during COVID‐19 pandemic through internet search data

Recent Coronavirus pandemic has prompted many regulations which are affecting the stock market. Especially because of lockdown policies across the world, the airlines industry is suffering. We analyse the stock price movements of three major airlines companies using a new approach which leverages a measure of internet concern on different topics. In this approach, Twitter data and Google Trends are used to create a set of predictors which then leads to an appropriately modified GARCH model. In the analysis, first we show that the ongoing pandemic has an unprecedented severe effect. Then, the proposed model is used to analyse and forecast stock price volatility of the airlines companies. The findings establish that our approach can successfully use the effects of internet concern for different topics on the movement of stock price index and provide good forecasting accuracy. Model confidence set (MCS) procedure further shows that the short‐term volatility forecasts are more accurate for this method than other candidate models. Thus, it can be used to understand the stock market during a pandemic in a better way. Further, the proposed approach is attractive and flexible, and can be extended to other related problems as well.

NOVEL ACCESSIBILITY METRICS BASED ON HIERARCHICAL DECOMPOSITION OF TRANSPORT NETWORKS

Scientific analysis of public transport systems at the urban, regional, and national levels is vital in this contemporary, highly connected world. Quantifying the accessibility of nodes (locations) in a transport network is considered a holistic measure of transportation and land use and an important research area. In recent years, complex networks have been employed for modeling and analyzing the topology of transport systems and services networks. However, the design of network hierarchy-based accessibility measures has not been fully explored in transport research. Thus, we propose a set of three novel accessibility metrics based on the k-core decomposition of the transport network. Core-based accessibility metrics leverage the network topology by eliciting the hierarchy while accommodating variations like travel cost, travel time, distance, and frequency of service as edge weights. The proposed metrics quantify the accessibility of nodes at different geographical scales, ranging from local to global. We use these metrics to compute the accessibility of geographical locations connected by air transport services in India. Finally, we show that the measures are responsive to changes in the topology of the transport network by analyzing the changes in accessibility for the domestic air services network for both pre-covid and post-covid times. © 2023 Faculty of Transport and Aviation Engineering, Silesian University of Technology. All rights reserved.

Evaluating the Impact of the Pandemic Crisis on the Aviation Industry.

This paper investigates the intellectual structure of the literature addressing "epidemic/pandemic" and "aviation industry" through a bibliometric approach to the literature from 1991 to 2021. The final count of 856 publications was collected from Web of Science and analyzed by CiteSpace (version 5.8.R1) and VOS Viewer. Visualization tools are used to perform the co-citation, co-occurrence, and thematic-based cluster analysis. The results highlight the most prominent nodes (articles, authors, journals, countries, and institutions) within the literature on "epidemic/pandemic" and "aviation industry." Furthermore, this study conceptualizes and compares the growth of literature before theCOVID-19 pandemic and during the COVID-19 ("hotspot") era. The conclusion is that the aviation industry is an engine for global economics on the road to recovery from COVID-19, in which soft (human) resources can play an integral part.

An empirical analysis of American Passenger's willingness to fly in commercial airplanes after vaccination against COVID-19.

Although several studies have explored the effects of the pandemic on aviation, little remains known about whether members of the public are willing to fly again after they have been vaccinated. The current study uses the Health Belief Model (HBM) to fill this missing gap by manipulating the following variables: 1) whether or not the participant is vaccinated; 2) whether or not airlines require that all passengers and crew receive vaccinations; 3) length of flight; 4) destination; and 5) the number of passengers. The data from 678 participants revealed that willingness to fly is much higher if the participants themselves have been vaccinated, if the airlines require all passengers to be vaccinated, if the flight is short, if the destination is domestic, and if the number of passengers is low. These findings did not appear to differ as a function of flying business versus pleasure. We discuss the practical implications of these data as airlines struggle to bring back their customer base.

Ethical-decision making of ‘Flights to Nowhere' passengers in the COVID-19 and climate change era

With international travel halting as a result of the outbreak of COVID-19, several airlines sought to offer Flights to Nowhere as a way to generate revenue and keep their aircrafts flight-ready. Flights to Nowhere are sightseeing flights that start and finish at the same airport without landing elsewhere. These flights have been heavily criticized for creating unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions. This research explores the ethical decision-making process and the subsequent rationalization of taking Flights to Nowhere. Using cognitive dissonance theory and neutralization techniques, we analyse in-depth interviews with passengers that have recently taken a Flight to Nowhere. Passengers did not immediately make the connection between Flights to Nowhere and climate change but on reflection, they justified these flights using a range of neutralization techniques including an appeal to higher loyalties, denial of injury, and justification by comparison.

Development, the Politics of Change, Contestation, and Adaptation in Contemporary Southeast Asia

El futuro de toda el área estará muy influenciado por el Sudeste Asiático, que se encuentra en el corazón del continente y tiene la economía más vibrante del mundo. El sudeste asiático también ofrece una ventana a algunos de los temas políticos más importantes de nuestro tiempo. Las doce páginas que siguen ofrecen una descripción completa de la asombrosa variedad de estructuras gubernamentales, prácticas culturales y formas de vida tradicionales del Sudeste Asiático, todas las cuales están experimentando de manera uniforme una serie de cambios importantes. El futuro de toda el área estará muy influenciado por el Sudeste Asiático, que se encuentra en el corazón del continente y tiene la economía más vibrante del mundo.Alternate abstract:The future of the entire area will be greatly influenced by Southeast Asia, which is at the heart of the continent and has the most vibrant economy in the entire world. Southeast Asia also provides a window into some of the most important political themes of our time. The twelve pages that follow give a comprehensive overview of Southeast Asia's astounding variety of governmental structures, cultural practices, and traditional ways of life-all of which are uniformly undergoing a number of important changes. The future of the entire area will be greatly influenced by Southeast Asia, which is at the heart of the continent and has the most vibrant economy in the entire world.

The Impact of Covid-19 on Marketing Mix and Economics of Airlines

The main goal of this paper is to assess the impact of covid-19 on marketing practices and airlines' adaptation to the new business and economic environment. In the first part, we introduce a marketing mix framework and look at the impact of covid-19 on seat capacity and airline operating revenues. In the second part, we determine current marketing strategies using the marketing framework of the 4Ps and its impact on operational changes among full-service network carriers and low-cost carriers. The central theme in advertising and campaigns for full-service network carriers is high hygiene standards and cleanliness of flights, as passengers are concerned with not contracting covid-19 or other viruses during the longer flight routes. Low-cost carriers still focus primarily on the price and convenience to potential customers. Both types of carriers do improve and push out technology changes in terms of mobile apps, improved online check-ins and contactless, touchless kiosks used for airport check-ins. These slight changes increase passengers' comfort, speed up the check-in process and minimize the spread of any viruses. © 2022 IEEE.