PRE-FLIGHT CONSIDERATIONS, IN-FLIGHT SERVICES, AND POST-FLIGHT RECEPTIONS: FACTORS INFLUENCING PASSENGERS’ INTERNATIONAL AIRLINE CHOICES

Abstract

The proliferation of airlines plying the international routes, triggered by the needed deregulation policies, has equally caused prospective air travelers to be constantly faced with critical pre-flight decisions, especially as they regard airline choice making for scheduled and on-demand flights. Considering the international bound passengers for scheduled flights at MMIA, this paper examines seventeen variables, wilfully or unconsciously thought-out by the passengers before choosing the airline to travel with. Factor analysis unveils that there are five components with Eigenvalue higher than the critical (1.000) and with an appreciable cumulative percent of variance (62.336 percent), indicative that there are five latent factors determining international passengers’ airline choices from a developing country. The Varimax rotated component matrix placed eleven variables with factor loading (>0.70) on these five factors. The paper concludes that the service quality of the full spectra of the airlines’ preflight, in-flight and post-flight services could be more carefully considered, maintained and regularly upgraded in order to attract and, or retain passengers.