Service quality of airports' food and beverage retailers. A fuzzy approach

Giacomo Del Chiappa, Juan Carlos Martin and Concepcion Roman

Journal of Air Transport Management, 2016, vol. 53, issue C, 105-113

Abstract: Nowadays the profitability of airports is largely based on non-aeronautical or commercial activities, and particularly on retail and food and beverage services. Further, researchers concur that shopping, eating and drinking in airports have to be considered an important part of tourists' experience and activities that can significantly enhance or damage the tourist destination image. Despite this, there is still little research that analyses how service quality (SQ) is perceived by passengers consuming food and beverages (F&B) in airport areas. This study aims to deepen the scientific debate on this topic. Specifically, this study applies fuzzy numbers with a sample of 551 passengers flying from Olbia-Costa Smeralda Airport (Sardinia Region, Italy) with the aim of determining how they perceive the SQ delivered by F&B retailers and whether age plays a determinant role in segmentation. Findings reveal which F&B features outperform others; furthermore, they show that age is a moderating factor in consumer satisfaction, with older passengers being less satisfied than their counterparts. This study adds knowledge to the literature devoted to SQ, applying a fuzzy number approach to the under-investigated research area related to F&B consumption in airport areas. Further, it provides information useful to airport managers on the features of F&B services that are most important in shaping consumer satisfaction, based also on their age. Limitations of the study are also discussed and suggestions for future research are given.

Keywords: Service quality; Food and beverage; Age; Airport; Fuzzy analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969699715300818
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jaitra:v:53:y:2016:i:c:p:105-113

DOI: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2016.02.002

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Air Transport Management is currently edited by Anne Graham

More articles in Journal of Air Transport Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().