Empirical Study and Discriminant Analysis of Airline Services in the Yangtze River Delta of China

Abstract

Like any other civil aviation marketplace around the world, the airline services in China become fiercely competitive. To stay competitive in the airline industry in China, it is critical for an airline to get an essential understanding of customer’s ongoing needs and know whether their needs are satisfactorily met. In this paper, an empirical study of the current airline service needs and quality in the Yangtze River Delta of China is explored using exploratory factor analysis. Discriminant analysis is further conducted to identify key service dimensions. Quantitatively and in an exploratory manner, structural equation models are employed by utilizing the IBM SPSS statistics tool. The findings in this study show that price, flight schedule, and customer relational benefit are crucial factors impacting on service quality and customer satisfaction in the current Chinese civil aviation market. To an airline, the highly valuable implications of the findings include a strong recommendation of adopting dynamic pricing schemes and improving flight schedules in the regions of China where high-speed train services become available.