What services and procedures can airlines implement to attract customers in the ongoing times of Covid-19?

Abstract

Purpose. The unprecedented situation due to the ongoing pandemic, which resulted in a drastic collapse of the demand side in the aviation industry, requires innovative recovery strategies. In this work several airline attributes, such as service, flight-schedule, and safety measures, are investigated to understand if and how they affect potential customer’s intention to purchase, and repurchase. Moreover, this study aims to analyze the habits of using contactless services and inflight services before and during the pandemic. Value. To formulate appropriate recovery plans, airlines also need to extend existing customer profiles to account for the new circumstances during the pandemic. The research objectives aim to contribute to a customer analysis. Such an analysis shall help to formulate recommendations for airlines for their recovery strategies, for example by answering if expansion of contactless check-in procedures is timely, and if customers might change their purchasing decision if ticket prices are about 20% more expensive. Methods. In order to study which airline attributes are important for potential customers and what aspects affect their purchasing and repurchasing choices, an online questionnaire was designed. Then, the collected responses of the questionnaire were analyzed using statistical methods and conclusions are drawn from the response distributions. Key findings. It is found that almost the majority of respondents are unwilling to pay higher ticket prices, or additional expenses on PCR tests, or spend more time at the airport. In addition, the flight schedule is one of the strongest factors to affect the purchasing choice of customers. Moreover, the most important preventive measures are the sanitization of the aircraft interior and the renewal of the air. Finally, it is revealed that contactless services are becoming more popular, in particular, among frequent flyers. Conclusion. Based on the results, it is recommended for airlines to avoid additional time and cost for customers if possible. A possible solution to decrease the time spent at the airport may be an advanced boarding ticket or card. Moreover, the further development of contactless procedures at airports is a step forward to a more customer friendly and pandemic-proof infrastructure.