Expectations and perceptions of service quality : a study on customer satisfaction of the low-cost airline industry in Singapore.

The low-cost airline industry has been burgeoning in recent history, offering flights to consumers at unprecedented low prices. This, however, comes with reduced service standards, relative to full-service airlines. With several economic factors forecasted in the future, the direction of this industry is interesting, and low-cost airlines are likely to become increasingly important players. Recognizing this future trend of low-cost airlines, this research aims to gather a better understanding of customer satisfaction levels in low-cost airlines; of particular interest are expectation levels and perceptions of service quality through experience. This research will attempt to measure differences between this expectations and perceptions, and to understand how these differences result in customer satisfaction. The scope of this research will be tertiary students in Singapore, as this market segment represents an important one for low-cost airlines. In its research methodology, this paper involves secondary literature reviews and primary data collection through a survey of consumers. Several statistical tests such as ttests are used to analyse the data. The research findings suggests that the Employee portion of the Tangibles dimension was of most importance to respondents, and it also recorded negative scores for all items in the survey, which implies customer dissatisfaction. Further exploration is made in these findings. Based on the research results, recommendations were made to potentially increase customer satisfaction levels in low-cost airlines in Singapore.BUSINES