Passengers’ perception of safety and its relationship with demographics, service quality, satisfaction and loyalty in airlines sector - A case study of Vietnam to Australia route

Our understanding of airline passengers' perception of safety and its association with their satisfaction and airline service quality measures is limited in the literature. This study aims to conduct a systematic examination of airline passengers’ perception of safety and its association with demographics attributes, service quality measures, overall satisfaction and loyalty by using Vietnam to Australia route as a case study. We conducted a questionnaire survey of 436 respondents travelling on a full-service airline flying from Vietnam to Australia. Only 53.4% of respondents feel safe while travelling in the airline while 28.9% feel neutral safe and 17.7% feel unsafe. We found that the four service quality measures of SERVQUAL model (Tangibles, Reliability, Assurance and Empathy) and airline specific measures (Flight Experience, Ground Service, Airline Employees and Flight Schedule) had significant effects on the passengers' perception of safety. Also, respondents' differences in educational qualification, frequency of travel, ticket types and the membership of frequent flyer program (FFP) had a significant effect on their perception of safety. Likewise, passengers’ overall satisfaction and loyalty to the airline also had a significant effect on the perception of safety. No effects on the perception of safety were found for differences in gender, age, nationality, income and purpose of travel. Although all airlines flying in and out of Australia must meet Australia's Safety Management System regulations and requirements, our findings emphasize the importance of understanding the relationship between passengers' perception of safety and their satisfaction. There is an opportunity for the airline operator to secure a lead in the market share of air travel by improving service quality measures that can influence passengers' perception of safety.