Enhancing Transit Passengers Experience at Hamad International Airport - Research Paper Example

 Enhancing Transit Passengers Experience at Hamad International Airport 1.0 Introduction Each group of airport passengers, including transit, arriving, and departure passengers, has a different set of preferences and needs as they use various airport facilities. For instance, passengers transferring from one flight to another are more likely to value to value their airport facilities experience since they have more discretionary waiting time compared to destination and origin passengers (Graham, 2013). With privatization and deregulation, many international airports are serving as hubs for passenger transit, which has increased the importance of these passengers to airports. Therefore, understanding their needs with regards to airport facility quality is fundamental to maintaining a competitive advantage in the industry (Lai & Chen, 2011). For countries in the Middle East, their privileged geographical location has made them a critical transit point for passengers travelling between the West and the East. Because customers have many choices between international airports in the Middle East, it is important for these airports to differentiate their airport service quality to increase their attractiveness. This report will focus on Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar, which has non-stop flights to every continent in the world and handles large volumes of transit passengers. The main aim of the report will be to investigate the association between airport service quality and airport experience for transit passengers at Hamad International Airport. The report is divided into four main sections, which are the literature review, the methodology, the results section, the discussion section, and the conclusion and recommendations section. 2.0 Literature Review Rowley and Slack (1999) note that air travellers on transit are more likely to experience a sense of placelessness and timelessness, particularly because they travel across different time zones and between distant locations. Investigating the departure lounge of airports from the perspective of places where placelessness and timelessness could be exhibited, the researchers find that there is some level of sameness between passengers on transit, although their experience is influenced to some extent by cultural and national dimensions. As a result, the passengers’ sense of time and place may be softened but it is still present. De Barros et al (2007) also note that transit passengers in airports have different preferences and needs to destination and origin passengers, especially because they do not make use of access roads around the airport, while they are less likely to use some facilities in the airport depending on how the airport is configured, the type of transits, and service quality of airlines. Investigating the views of transit passengers on service quality at terminal buildings, the researchers find that flight information display quality and security check staff courtesy are among the most important services for airport transit passengers. Fodness and Murray (2007), on the other hand, set out to investigate the expectations of passengers in the airport service industry with regards to service quality, exploring the perspective of airport passengers in relation to airport experience. In their findings, the researchers note that that the passengers’ expectations of service quality at airports is a hierarchical and multi-dimensional construct that involves three main dimensions of diversion, interaction, and function. By going beyond traditional measures of service performance in airports and using newer aspects of airport service quality like activity, it is possible to improve passenger experience and fulfil their expectations. Tsai et al (2011) argue that the emphasis of passengers’ expectations and perception of service quality in airports has become increasingly important, especially because of the impact that customer orientation today has on the ability of international airports to gain competitive advantage. Seeking to investigate the expectations and perceptions of airport passengers on service quality provided at the airport, the researchers state that airports can improve the quality of services offered to passengers through the use of a multi-dimensional method that analyzes the differences between passengers’ expectations and perceptions of airport service quality. Martín-Cejas (2006), in turn, seeks to assess the service quality levels at airport facilities in order to estimate the quality of service provided to the tourism industry, as well as to determine the established service quality levels at the airport’s check-in service. Noting that tourists at airport terminals have more leisure time available to them at the terminal buildings in the airport, the researcher argues that tourist satisfaction and perceptions are critical because they affect their intentions and expectations for their next destination. Several aspects are noted as being important to service quality perception, including airport facilities, airport infrastructure, transport services, and transport infrastructure. Dawes and Rowley (1996) seek to investigate the service quality experience of airport passengers in relation to waiting time, in turn seeking to determining how waiting time impacts on the satisfaction of airport passengers. Moreover, this article also investigates how waiting time can be managed to increase passenger satisfaction and influence their future attitude to the airport, finding that successful waiting time management is rewarding to the airport and to the passenger. This is because waiting time is related to satisfaction of customers, while customers are more likely to make return visits in the absence of negative attitudes to waiting time. Liou et al (2011) argue that passengers’ perceptions of the level of service at airports has an impact on either discouraging or promoting future business and tourism activities and set out to investigate this issue with a service quality survey. The researchers find that using a dominance-based rough set approach allows for the airport’s standards of service levels positively promote business and tourism activities. Their proposed methodology is also promoted as a practical source of information to help airports develop strategies to improve level-of-service standards. Correia and Wirasinghe (2007), on their part, seek to develop standards for level of service at passengers terminals in airports on the basis of user perceptions, specifically by evaluating the check-in counter element with regards to waiting time, processing time, and the space each passenger has available to them. They find that a standardized service level for airport passengers can be developed through the use of quantitative perception scales, which can be gathered through the use of data from qualitative surveys. Moreover, it is also possible to design a level of service composite evaluation at the airport’s check-in counter as a function of available space, processing time, and waiting time. Finally, Tam and Lam (2004) argue that the layout design of passenger terminals at airports should take passenger orientation into account, especially because even the presence of information signs does not completely eliminate the difficulty that airport passengers have in locating their destination. The researchers use the visibility index to evaluate passengers’ ease in locating facilities at the airport departures terminal, while also identifying new standards of service levels for orientation based on the index. They find that the level-of-service standards and visibility index should be used in improving the design of airport terminal layout, especially if used alongside the layout of the airport terminal. From this literature review, the research questions posed for this study are; what is the impact of airport service quality on airport experience for passengers? How can the experience of transit passengers at Hamad International Airport be enhanced? 3.0 Methodology The main purpose of this research report is to investigate the effect of airport service quality on the passengers’ airport experience at Hamad International Airport, specifically to identify how the passengers’ experience can be enhanced at the airport. To achieve this aim, the research study used a quantitative research methodology to identify how Hamad International Airport can improve their airport experience. Quantitative research mainly involves asking participants in a structured manner for their opinions, producing statistics and hard facts to guide the researcher (Creswell, 2013). Moreover, quantitative research was a good fit for the research question because it allowed for the validation and testing of existing theories of passenger experience at airport. This study also used a descriptive research design, which was a fit for the research question because it allowed for the description of the current status of the airport experience for passengers. In addition, this design allowed for the study to provide systematic information concerning airport service experience, while Creswell (2013) also identifies descriptive design as the best design to answer questions of how, which fits with the research question on how to improve the experience of transit passengers. The participants for this study were recruited using non-probability sampling, which involved the selection of individuals who are easiest to access during the study because of limitations related to time. This sampling method was also used because the process being tested for in the study is universal and basic at airports and, therefore, can be generalized beyond the narrow sample used. The specific type of non-probability sampling used for this study was purposive sampling, which relied on the researcher’s judgment in selecting the participants to be studied. The main goal of this sampling technique is to focus on specific population characteristics, especially those that this research was interested on; airport experience. The sampling process resulted in the selection of (n=1811) participants, of which (n=624) were males and (n=1183) were females. Data collection was conducted through both primary and secondary sources of data. With regards to the primary data collection, the study used surveys, which were distributed to frequent air travellers selected as participants who had experienced Hamad International Airport, while others were also distributed within the transit terminal. Surveys are especially suited to this study because they are able to gather descriptive information required to answer the research question (Creswell, 2013). Data collected from the surveys generally asked the participants questions related to their personal preferences, attitudes, emotions, and knowledge. Data collection was also conducted using secondary sources, in this case from organizations like the Civil Aviation Authority, specialized magazines like Skytrax, and organizational data from privilege club members. The collected data was analyzed using statistical tests, of which there are several that can be used depending on what the researcher is looking for in the data, as well as the type of data collected and the manner in which it was collected. The study used Pearson’s correlation so as to identify correlations between the two continuous variables. The study also used the t-test, which was meant to evaluate whether the means of both males and females differ statistically from one another. 4.0 Results 4.1 Introduction This research paper sought to investigate the effect of airport service quality on the airport experience of passengers at Hamad International Airport, as well as how this experience can be enhanced for transit passengers. The independent variable for the study was airport service quality, while the dependent variable was airport experience with passenger income used as the moderating variable. This section will involve the use of two main tests to measure for these variables, which are Pearson Correlation and the t-test. This chapter presents interpretation and analysis of data and is comprised of three main sections, which are a description of the sample and its demographic characteristics, a description of statistical techniques used, and presentation of results for the individual tests. 4.2 Description of Sample The sample size for this study was (n=1811), of which the response rate was calculated at 65%. Of this sample that responded to the study, (n=624) were males and (n=1183) were female. There were four participants in the study who did not indicate their gender. In addition, with regards to the ethnicity of the participating respondents, majority of the sampled participants were from New Zealand (n=878), followed by Maori s (n=267), Asians (n=145), (n=103) were from the Pacific Islands, (n=89) were Australians, (n=78) were European Caucasians, (n=45) were Middle Eastern, (n=45) were African Caucasians, and (n=183) comprised of other ethnicities. As such, the largest proportion of participants was from New Zealand Caucasians and Maoris. In relation to the age of participants, the largest proportion of the sample was aged between 20 years and 29 years (n=546), followed by those aged between 30 and 39 years (n=451), (n=367) were aged between 40 and 49 years, (n=231) were aged between 50 and 60, (n=156) were aged below 20 years of age, and (n=59) were aged over 60. This trend in age could be explained by the fact that those aged between 20 and 49 are on business trips, which required an increased amount of travelling compared to those below 20 and above 60. 4.3 Statistical Techniques Independent-Samples t-test Data for this study was analyzed using the t-test, which was sued to examine the population between two means, in this case between the means of female participants and male participants. The main aim for using this statistical test was to determine whether these two samples differed significantly, specifically by using the t-distribution, the t-statistic, and degrees of freedom to come up with a probability value to determine the difference between the female and male samples (Giudici et al, 2013). This analytical test was especially useful because the data collected was for two groups, i.e. males and females. The certainty with which averages for the two samples can be measured is usually expressed in terms of the standard deviation. The t-test provides the researcher with the probability that the two means’ difference is as a result of chance, in which case a probability below 0.05 would be significant and not caused by chance (Giudici et al, 2013). In this study, the t-test was utilized in comparing the averages among female and male passengers, specifically with regards to responses concerning the quality of services at Hamad International Airport. The results, as shown in the table 1, were for satisfaction of service quality at the airport and a t-test was used to compare the satisfaction means for airport service quality among male and female passengers. The hypothesis (H1) was that transit passengers perceive service airport quality to be a significant reason for them using Hamad International Airport. Results from the independent-samples t-test in Table 1 show that the difference in means between male passengers and female passengers was not significant as p>0.5, thus supporting the hypothesis. Males (n=411) Females (n=1005) Equal Variance not Assumed Mean Difference t Sig. (2-tailed) Mean (SD) Mean (SD) Independent variable: Airport Service Quality 4.0638 (1.02998) 3.8183 (1.03604) .24558 4.065 .750 Table 1: t-test of satisfaction with airport service quality Males (n=624) Females (n=1181) Equal Variance not Assumed Mean Difference t Sig. (2-tailed) Mean (SD) Mean (SD) Dependent Variable: Airport Experience 3.4364 (.60004) 3.6358 (.59542) -.19933 -6.730 .991 Table 2: t-test of airport experience Table 2 was used to compare the averages or means of the airport experience for both male and female passengers at Hamad International Airport. The hypothesis (H2) was that the experience perceptions of service quality at airports have a positive influence on the overall experience of passengers. Results from the independent-samples t-test in table 2 shows that there is no difference in means for the dependent variable between males and females with p>.05, thus supporting the hypothesis. Pearson Correlation The Pearson Correlation is a measure of how well sets of data are related by showing whether two data sets have a linear relationship. It is especially useful in the investigation of two continuous, quantitative variables and the relationship between them, specifically by measuring the extent of association between the independent variable and the dependent variable (Giudici et al, 2013). The Pearson correlation is especially suited for this study because it determines the extent to which the two variables, airport service quality and airport experience, change; rather than the actual difference between the independent variable and the dependent variable. Therefore, two passengers with similar preferences for service quality would be matched through this statistical test, despite their real ratings being at opposite ends of the metric scale. Using the Pearson correlation metric will also allow for score accuracy to increase even sans the normalization of collated data, which makes it suitable for measuring quantities that vary (Giudici et al, 2013). Moreover, the Pearson correlation quantities can correct for any attribute, such as age. As a result, it was possible to use scores that utilized different values but describes similar data. Airport Experience Age Airport Service Quality N 1416 1415 Pearson Correlation .085 .198 Table 3: Pearson correlation Correlation analysis was conducted between the perceptions of airport service quality and airport experience for transit passengers with the correlation analysis tabulated in Table 3. These results show that airport service quality and the airport experience of passengers have a positive correlation at the 0.01 level of statistical significance. This indicates that the airport service quality has a significant influence on the airport experience of the passengers. Moreover, there was also a positive correlation between airport service quality and age of the passengers at the 0.01 level of statistical significance, thus showing that the perceptions of service quality and airports differ with the age of the passenger. 5.0 Discussion To answer the research question on how to enhance transit passengers’ experience at Hamad International Airport, the study set out to investigate the extent to which airport service quality influences the passengers’ airport experience. A survey was administered to a purposive sample of 1811 (n=1811) participants, (n=624) males and (n=1183) females, to assess their perceptions of airport service quality, as well as their overall experience at Hamad International Airport. After conducting a statistical analysis of the data using the t-test and Pearson’s Correlation, it was found that the data supported the following hypotheses; H1: Transit passengers perceive service airport quality to be a significant attribute at Hamad International Airport. H2: The perceptions of airport service quality have a positive influence on their overall experience at Hamad International Airport. H3: The perception of airport service quality differs with the age of passengers. Based on these results, airport service quality will be important in Hamad International Airport’s aim to enhance passengers’ airport experience. Current research studies support this theme in improving airport experience, although majority of them have focused on the impact of overall airport performance, facility characteristics, and overall service levels. The results support Tsai et al’s (2011) assertion that the expectations and perceptions of transit airport passengers about the quality of services at the airport have a significant influence on their satisfaction, as well as their overall airport experience. In this case, the researchers also reveal that the provision of high service quality has enabled major international airports across the world to provide transit passengers with the ultimate experience, improving their loyalty. Du et al (2014) also find that transit passengers who report to having a positive experience at international airports tend to attribute their experience to airport service quality. Indeed, passengers who are not satisfied with the experience are more likely to complain about the service quality at the airport more than about facilities or performance of the airport. Arif et al (2013) also found that most airports have identified the importance of service quality to overall passenger experience but also note that passengers on transit are offered better service quality than origin and departure passengers, which aligns with the findings of the current study. Transit passengers are more likely to find their overall airport experience enjoyable if their processing and waiting times were longer, as long as the service quality was satisfactory. This underlines he important role that service quality plays for transit passenger experience. However, Bogicevic et al (2013) argue that, while service is a critical element in the overall experience for airport passengers, it should not be at the expense of comfort and punctuality for the passengers. In this case, service quality is just as important to experience but should be accompanied by lower waiting and processing times for transit passengers. Conclusion This study has investigated the influence of airport service quality on passenger experience with the aim of identifying how Hamad International Airport can enhance passenger experience, finding that service quality should be at the centre of passenger experience improvement efforts. On the basis of the framework of associations between the independent and dependent variables, all relationships hypothesized were found to be statistically significant. As a result, several recommendations can be made on how Hamad International Airport can enhance experience by meeting the passengers’ expectations of service quality. Hamad International Airport should collect data to measure their service quality continuously through the year, specifically to ensure continuous improvement of service quality and maintain their competitive advantage (Skytrax, 2014). Hamad International Airport should redesign and realign the processes at the airport to meet growing customer expectations. In this case, they should ensure an airport experience that satisfies their customers and achieves a consistent service quality level. The working staff at the airport should undergo training and development to equip them with the skills needed to deliver quality service (Skytrax, 2014). Finally, the airport should implement service-driven initiatives by listening to their customers and improving quality of service by referring to the feedback. These initiatives should aim at promoting the contribution of all participants through recognition, as well as creating enhanced levels of service awareness. 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