Strategy

International Research Symposium in Service Management

ISSN 1694-0938

PASSENGER PERCEPTIONS AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE LOW-COST AND FULL-SERVICE AIRLINE MODELS IN SOUTH AFRICA AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR SERVICE STRATEGY A case study involving South African Airways, British Airways (Comair), Kulula.com, Mango and 1time

Colin Diggines Senior Lecturer Centre for Business Management (CBM) University of South Africa (UNISA)

PO Box 6948 ANSFRERE 1711 South Africa 0027124293940 0027826612847 cdiggines@unisa.ac.za diggines@telkomsa.net

Le Meridien Hotel, Mauritius, 24-27 August 2010

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International Research Symposium in Service Management

ISSN 1694-0938

PASSENGER PERCEPTIONS AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE LOWCOST AND FULL-SERVICE AIRLINE MODELS IN SOUTH AFRICA AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR SERVICE STRATEGY ABSTRACT

Purpose: The study, which duplicates a study conducted in Europe and Asia, was conducted to gain an understanding of the perceptions South African passengers have of the low-cost carrier model and the full-service carrier model and establish how these perceptions relate to choice of airline when deciding to fly. Design/methodology/approach: The research is exploratory in nature and used the survey method to collect data at Cape Town and Johannesburg international airports in South Africa. Passengers were interviewed with proportionate representation across the two full-service carriers, and the three lowcost carriers operating in the South African market. A service quality measurement instrument was added to the questionnaire to rate the perception of service delivered by each airline. Findings: It is shown that passengers have a limited understanding of the difference between the two models. Fare was an important issue for low-cost passengers, with full-service passengers indicating that quality and safety were more important than the fare. Although low-cost airline passengers have a highly favourable perception of low-cost airlines, they are highly price sensitive...