Customer satisfaction on in flight services of vietnam airlines

MEIHO UNIVERSITY Graduate Institute of Business and Management MASTERS THESIS Customer Satisfaction on In-flight Services of Vietnam Airlines In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Business Administration Advisor: Dr Chien-Chung Lin Co-advisor: Dr Vo Phuoc Tan Graduate Student: Tran Sy Ngach December, 2010 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First of all, I would like to thank Dr Chien Chung Lin of the Graduate Institute of Business and Management of Meiho Institute of Technology, Taiwan (MIT Taiwan), who not only gave me much valuable and timely instructions but also encouragement during my preparation of this research I would also like to thank Dr Vo Phuoc Tan, the Head of the Post Graduate Department of Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry, Vietnam, for his advice to complete the thesis Beside my own efforts together valuable advice of the advisors, I also receive great help and encouragement from my family, my friends, and my colleagues so finally, I would like to extend a special thankfulness to all of them, especially Ms Do Thi Thanh Huyen, for their support during my course and survey I Customer Satisfaction on In-flight Services of Vietnam Airlines ABSTRACT Customer satisfaction is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation Managers strongly believe that customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator, which has become a key element of business strategies in a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers Marketers are also aware that measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication of how successful the organization is at providing products or services to the marketplace The aim of this study was to explore the perception of Vietnam Airlines passengers to the in-flight services provided by the airline The model used to examine customer satisfaction on service quality is the SERQUAL modal, developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry together the five-point scale of SERVPEX, proposed by Robledo (2001) To achieve the purpose of the study, a survey was used involving 450 Vietnam Airlines passengers in four domestic and international flights The results of the survey exposed the current perception of Vietnam Airlines’s passengers on the quality of inflight services Based on results of the analyses, the study showed the effects of service criteria on passenger’s perceptions of in-flight services and offered some suggestions to enhance customer satisfaction with perceived in-flight service quality for Vietnam Airlines Keywords: Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction, In-flight Services, SERVQUAL, SERVPEX, Viet Nam Airlines II Customer Satisfaction on In-flight Services of Vietnam Airlines Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I ABSTRACT II Contents III Tables V Figures VII Chapter1 Introduction 1.1 Motivation 1.2 Purpose 1.3 Research Scope and Limitations 1.4 Definition of Terms 1.4.1 Service quality 1.4.2 In-flight service 1.4.3 SERVQUAL 1.4.4 SERVPEX Chapter Literature Review 2.1 Service Quality 2.2 In-flight Services 15 2.3 Customer Satisfaction 22 2.4 The Relationship between Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction 23 Chapter Research Methodology 27 3.1 Research Process 27 3.2 Research Framework 28 3.3 Research Methodology 29 3.4 Population and Sampling 29 3.4.1 Population 29 3.4.2 Sampling 30 3.5 Questionnaire Design 30 3.5.1 Classification questions 30 3.5.2 Main questions 31 III 3.6 Reliability and Validity 34 3.6.1 Reliability 34 3.6.2 Construct validity 34 3.7 Data Collection 34 3.8 Data Analysis 35 Chapter Research Results and Analysis 36 4.1 Descriptive Statistics 36 4.1.1 Characteristics of the respondents 36 4.1.2 Measurement results of research variables 38 4.2 Reliability 41 4.3 Inferential Statistics 43 4.3.1 Regression analysis 43 4.3.2 Independent sample T-test 47 4.3.2 One way ANOVA 50 Chapter Conclusions, Recommendations and Implication 59 5.1 Conclusions 59 5.1.1 How Vietnam airlines’ passengers perceive the in-flight services 59 5.1.2 How factors influence on the customer satisfaction of in-flight sevices 59 5.1.3 How passengers with different genders perceive the in-flight services 59 5.1.4 How passengers with different ages perceive the in-flight services 59 5.1.5 How passengers with different occupations perceive the in-flight services 60 5.1.6 How passengers with different frequency of air travel perceive the in-flight services 60 5.1.7 How passengers with different types of ticket perceive the in-flight services 60 5.1.8 How passengers with different nationalities perceive the in-flight services 60 5.2 Recommendations 61 5.3 Implication 62 References 63 Appendix I 66 IV Tables Table 2-1 Asian – Pacific Airlines Ranking by Skytrax 16 Table 2-2 Summary of the Research Questions and Hypotheses 26 Table 3-1 Variables of the Study 31 Table 3-2 The Sub-instrument of Tangibility 32 Table 3-3 The Sub-instrument of Reliability 32 Table 3-4 The Sub-instrument of Responsiveness 32 Table 3-5 The Sub-instrument of Assurance 33 Table 3-6 The Sub-instrument of Empathy 33 Table 4-1 Respondents’ Demographics 37 Table 4-2 Descriptive Statistics of Thirty Measured Items 39 Table 4-3 Means and Standard Deviations of Tangibility 40 Table 4-4 Means and Standard Deviations of Reliability 40 Table 4-5 Means and Standard Deviations of Responsiveness 40 Table 4-6 Means and Standard Deviations of Assurance 41 Table 4-7 Means and Standard Deviations of Empathy 41 Table 4-8 Cronbach’s Alpha of Five Constructs and the “Overall In-flight Services” Item 42 Table 4-9 Cronbach’s Alpha of Total- item Statistics 42 Table 4-10 Regression Analysis for Tangibility Variable Predicting Passenger Satisfaction 43 Table 4-11 Regression Analysis for Reliability Variable Predicting Passenger Satisfaction 44 Table 4-12 Regression Analysis for Responsiveness Variable Predicting Passenger Satisfaction 45 Table 4-13 Regression Analysis for Assurance Variable Predicting Passenger Satisfaction 45 Table 4-14 Regression Analysis for Empathy Variable Predicting Customer Satisfaction 46 Table 4-15 Regression Analysis for Five Variables Of Service Quality Predicting Customer Satisfaction 47 Table 4-16 Group Statistics of Gender 48 Table 4-17 Independent Samples Test for Gender 48 Table 4-18 Group Statistics of Ticket Types 49 Table 4-19 Independent Samples Test for Ticket Types 50 Table 4-20 ANOVA of the Factor of Occupations Against the In-flight Services 51 V Table 4-21 Post Hoc for Multiple Comparisons for Ages 52 Table 4-22 ANOVA of the Occupation Factor Against the In-flight Services 53 Table 4-23 Post Hoc for Multiple Comparisons for Occupations 54 Table 4-24 One Way Anova for Frequency of Air Travelling 55 Table 4-25 Multiple Comparisons for Frequency of Air Travelling 56 Table 4.26 One Way Anova for Nationalities 57 Table 4-27 Summary of Means and Std Deviation of Five In-flight Service Factors 58 Table 4-28 Hypothesis Test Summary 58 VI Figures Figure 1-1 The Number of Passengers Served by VNA and Its Growth Rate Figure 1-2 Vietnam Airlines Routes Map Figure 1-3 Survey’s Results of VNA Flights (Types of Flight) Figure 1-4 Survey’s Results of VNA Flights (TYpes of Seat) Figure 2-1 Modal of Service Quality – The Gaps Modal 12 Figure 2-2 Process of Service Delivery in Airline Industry 17 Figure 2-3 Skytrax’ Result Report of Flight Attendants Grade C of VNA from 2007 – 2009 20 Figure 2-4 Skytrax’ Ranking Flight Attendants Grade C of VNA from 2007 – 2009 20 Figure 2-5 Skytrax’ Result Report of Flight Attendants Grade Y of VNA from 2007 – 2009 21 Figure 2-6 Skytrax’ Ranking Flight Attendants Grade Y of VNA from 2007 – 2009 21 Figure 2-7 Passengers’ Feedback on Customer Services 24 Figure 3-1 The Flowchart of Research Process 28 Figure 3-2 The Research Framework 29 Figure 4-1 Chart of Respondents’ Nationalities 37 VII Table 4-23 Post Hoc for Multiple Comparisons for Occupations Demographic factor ofice staff 851 137 890 -.002 1.000 037 999 118 902 997 063 994 -.123 862 -.096 877 -.073 980 business person 145 632 058 997 -.116 901 -.026 1.000 071 986 -.078 971 -.049 999 -.208 505 -.142 676 067 992 042 997 058 996 -.247 208 -.010 1.000 096 940 ofice staff -.115 851 -.137 890 002 1.000 -.037 999 -.118 902 senior manager -.073 981 -.074 994 -.120 926 -.134 762 -.192 592 business person 029 1.000 -.079 992 -.113 947 -.064 989 -.047 999 teacher/researcher -.193 523 -.187 795 -.205 646 -.180 556 -.050 999 others -.072 983 -.079 992 -.244 369 -.048 997 -.021 1.000 ofice staff -.042 997 -.063 994 123 862 096 877 073 980 manager 073 981 074 994 120 926 134 762 192 592 business person 102 905 -.005 1.000 006 1.000 069 978 145 797 -.120 866 -.112 963 -.084 985 -.046 998 141 851 000 1.000 -.004 1.000 -.124 892 085 941 170 643 ofice staff -.145 632 -.058 997 116 901 026 1.000 -.071 986 manager -.029 1.000 079 992 113 947 064 989 047 999 senior manager -.102 905 005 1.000 -.006 1.000 -.069 978 -.145 797 teacher/researcher -.223 311 -.107 973 -.091 980 -.115 875 -.003 1.000 others -.102 911 000 1.000 -.131 880 016 1.000 025 1.000 ofice staff 078 971 049 999 208 505 142 676 -.067 992 manager 193 523 187 795 205 646 180 556 050 999 senior manager 120 866 112 963 084 985 046 998 -.141 851 business person 223 311 107 973 091 980 115 875 003 1.000 others others EMP Md Sig .042 others teacher/ researcher ASS Md Sig .115 teacher/researcher business person RES Md Sig manager others senior manager REL Md Sig senior manager teacher/researcher manager TAN Md Sig .121 866 108 970 -.039 1.000 132 789 029 1.000 ofice staff -.042 997 -.058 996 247 208 010 1.000 -.096 940 manager 072 983 079 992 244 369 048 997 021 1.000 senior manager -.000 1.000 004 1.000 124 892 -.085 941 -.170 643 business person 102 911 -.000 1.000 131 880 -.016 1.000 -.025 1.000 -.121 866 -.108 970 039 1.000 -.132 789 -.029 1.000 teacher/researcher Note: TAN: Tangibility; REL: Reliability; RES: Responsiveness; ASS: Assurance; EMP: Empathy * p < 05; Md: Mean Difference The Post hoc comparisons are shown in the Table 4-23 The results indicate all the mean differences were not significant with p > 05 The highest mean difference in perceiving tangibility factor was 145, which was the mean difference between passengers who are office staff and those who are business people The mean difference between passengers who are office staff and the ones who are managers in evaluating reliability factor was highest (.137) In contrary, the mean difference in perceiving responsiveness factor between passengers who are office staff and the ones 54 who are in the group of other jobs, which was 247, was the highest .142 and 118 were the highest mean differences in perceiving assurance and empathy factors of inflight services 4.3.2.3 H9: Passengers with different frequency of travel perceive equally inflight services The third analysis of variance was conducted to answer the research question 6” How passengers with different frequency of air travelling perceive the in-flight services?” The results of this One-way ANOVA analysis were displayed in Tables 424 and 4-25 The statistics in table 4.24 indicates there were existences of significant difference in perceiving tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy factors of in-flight services among three groups of passenger with different frequency of air travel Respectively, the results for five factors with F (2, 329) = 4.456, p = 012; F(2, 329) = 19.138, p = 000; F(2, 329) = 9.718, p = 000; F(2, 329) = 4.208, p = 016; and F(2, 329) = 2.481, p = 085 proved that the mean diffences among three groups were significant Table 4-24 One Way Anova for Frequency of Air Travelling df Mean Square F Sig Between Groups 1.202 4.456 012 Within Groups 329 270 Total 331 REL Between Groups 7.839 19.138 000 Within Groups 329 410 Total 331 RES Between Groups 3.614 9.718 000 Within Groups 329 372 Total 331 ASS Between Groups 1.041 4.208 016 Within Groups 329 247 Total 331 EMP Between Groups 881 2.481 085 Within Groups 329 355 Total 331 Note: TAN: Tangibility; REL: Reliability; RES: Responsiveness; ASS: Assurance; EMP: Empathy TAN p < 0.05 55 Table 4-25 shows the results of the Post hoc comparison The mean difference in perceiving tangibility factor between passengers who are rarely travel by air and passengers who are often travel by air was 266, significant with p = 018 It means passengers who are rarely travel by air perceived in-flight services of Vietnam Airlines higher than those who often travel by air In evaluating reliability factor of inflight services, there were significant differences between three groups The more often passengers travel by air, the less quality of in-flight services they perceive There were similarly significant mean differences in perceiving responsiveness and assurance factors of the in-flight services between passengers who are rarely travel by air and passengers who are often travel by air with the results of 461, p = 000 and 250, p = 021 However, there were not existences of statiscally significant mean differnces in perceiving the empathy factor of Vietnam Airlines in-flight services among three groups of passengers with different frequency of air travel Table 4-25 Multiple Comparisons for Frequency of Air Travelling Demographic factor rarely sometimes sometimes often TAN Md Sig -.134 REL Md Sig .328 -.437(*) RES Md Sig .001 -.230 ASS Md Sig .094 -.130 EMP Md Sig .317 -.053 875 often -.266(*) 018 -.720(*) 000 -.461(*) 000 -.250(*) 021 -.191 202 rarely 134 328 437(*) 001 230 094 130 317 053 875 often -.132 081 -.282(*) 001 -.230(*) 004 -.120 104 -.138 123 rarely 266(*) 018 720(*) 000 461(*) 000 250(*) 021 191 202 132 081 282(*) 001 230(*) 004 120 104 138 123 sometimes Note: TAN: Tangibility; REL: Reliability; RES: Responsiveness; ASS: Assurance; EMP: Empathy * p < 05; Md: Mean Difference 4.3.2.4 H11: Passengers with different nationalities perceive equally inflight services The last analysis of variance was for answering the research question 8” How passengers with different nationalities perceive the in-flight services?” The results of this One-way ANOVA analysis were displayed in Tables 4-26 56 Table 4.26 One Way Anova for Nationalities df Mean Square F Sig TAN Between Groups 395 1.452 174 Within Groups 323 272 Total 331 REL Between Groups 224 488 865 Within Groups 323 460 Total 331 RES Between Groups 395 1.009 429 Within Groups 323 391 Total 331 ASS Between Groups 429 1.732 090 Within Groups 323 248 Total 331 EMP Between Groups 392 1.097 365 Within Groups 323 357 Total 331 Note: TAN: Tangibility; REL: Reliability; RES: Responsiveness; ASS: Assurance; EMP: Empathy p < 0.05 With the same F values, p values respectively for tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy factors of 174, 865, 429, 090, 365, Table 4-26 indicates there were not existences of significant difference in perceiving Vietnam Airlines services among different groups of passenger’nationalities It means the hypothesis 11 was supported Since Post hoc tests are not performed for any variables which have fewer than three groups or have at least one group has fewer than two cases (Huck, Cormier and Bounds, 1974), Post hoc comparisons could not be conducted for hypothesis 11 In this case, two groups of passengers, who are from Indochina and other countries, had one participant for each group 57 Summary Tables 4-27 and 4-28 summurize main statistics related to the purpose and objectives and used to answer the research questions of the study Table 4-27 Summary of Means and Std Deviation of Five In-flight Service Factors Variables Tangibility Reliability Responsiveness Assurance Empathy Overall in-flight services Mean Std Deviation 3.59 3.65 3.52 3.43 3.52 3.57 524 674 625 502 598 712 Table 4-28 Hypothesis Test Summary Hypothesis 10 11 Description Tangibility has a positive effect on the passenger satisfaction of Vietnam Airlines’ in-flight services Reliability has a positive effect on the passenger satisfaction of Vietnam Airlines’ in-flight services Responsiveness has a positive effect on the passenger satisfaction of Vietnam Airlines’ in-flight services Assurance has a positive effect on the passenger satisfaction of Vietnam Airlines’ in-flight services Empathy has a positive effect on the passenger satisfaction of Vietnam Airlines’ in-flight services There is no significant difference in perceiving in-flight services between males and females Passengers with different ages perceive equally in-flight services Passengers with different occupation perceive equally in-flight services Passengers with different frequency of travel perceive equally in-flight services There is no significant difference in perceiving in-flight services between passengers with different types of ticket Passengers with different nationalities perceive equally in-flight services 58 Results Accepted Accepted Accepted Accepted Accepted Accepted Accepted Accepted Rejected Accepted Accepted Chapter Conclusions, Recommendations and Implication This chapter displayed the results of the data analysis to answer the research questions Based on the findings, the study came to conclusions, suggestions The implication of this study was also proposed in this chapter 5.1 Conclusions This study aimed to determine customer satisfaction of on-board services of Vietnam Airlines; examine the effects of tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy on the quality of the in-fligh services; and find out the differences in perceiving in-fligh service quality of different groups of gender, age, occupation, frequency of air travel, ticket, and nationality Through data analysis, the research came to the following conclusions: 5.1.1 How Vietnam airlines’ passengers perceive the in-flight services Vietnam Airlines’ passengers satisfy with the quality of in-flight services with the mean of higher than Thus, we can sey that the in-flight services quality under five dimensions of tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy are perceived as high as the expectations of the passangers 5.1.2 How factors influence on the customer satisfaction of in-flight sevices There are positive and significant effects between tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy factors and customer satisfaction of in-fligh services, especially the factors of responsiveness, assurance, and empathy when the passengers perceive the quality of the in-flight services as a combination of these five factors 5.1.3 How passengers with different genders perceive the in-flight services There is no significant difference in perceiving in-flight services between males and females It means the quality of on-board servives of Vietnam Airlines is equal to the expectation of male and female passengers 5.1.4 How passengers with different ages perceive the in-flight services There is no significant difference in perceiving in-flight services by passengers 59 with different ages It shows that the expected in-flight services of Vietnam Airlines passengers regardless of their ages equals to the perceived in-flight services 5.1.5 How passengers with different occupations perceive the in-flight services Passengers with different occupations perceive equally in-flight services Although passengers have different jobs, they have the same feeling about the quality of inflight sevices of Vietnam Airlines It means the quality of Vietnam Airlines in-flight services equals to passenger’s expectation of different occupation groups 5.1.6 How passengers with different frequency of air travel perceive the in-flight services Passengers with different frequency of air travel not perceive equally all the in-flight services However, with the means of tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy are 3.59, 3.65, 3.52, 3.43, 3.52, respectively and the overall in-flight services is 3.57, there is not a gap between the expected in-flight services and the perceived in-flight services of Vietnam Airlines 5.1.7 How passengers with different types of ticket perceive the in-flight services There is no significant difference in perceiving in-flight services between passengers with different types of ticket It means the quality of Vietnam Airlines onboard services is equal to the expectation of passengers regardless they pay higher or less for the ticket they buy 5.1.8 How passengers with different nationalities perceive the in-flight services There is no significant difference in perceiving in-flight services by passengers of different nationalities The last hypothesis is approved to reveal that the quality of Vietnam Airlines on-board services is also equal to the expectation of passengers regardless their nationalities With the answers for the research questions mentioned above, the study exposed the perception of Vietnam Airlines’ passengers to its on-board service quality The in-flight service quality is perceived satisfactory and tends toward more than the expectation direction by passengers with different genders, ages, occupation, the frequency of air travelling, ticket types, and nationalities 60 5.2 Recommendations Although the in-flight service quality of Vietnam Airlines is perceived satisfactory and tends toward ideal quality by passengers with different genders, ages, occupation, the frequency of air travelling, ticket type buying, and nationalities, passengers’ perceptions on each criteria are not the same In five criteria to evaluate in-flight services, assurance has the lowest mean (3.43), the mean of tangibility is the highest (3.59) Except for items “Appearance of flight attendants” and “Flight crew performs duties confidently” are highest (3.79), there are many items are not perceived high which reduce the mean of overall in-flight services to 3.57 These items are necessary to improved There are ten items with means from 3.5 downwards including: “Variety of interesting entertainment programs”, “Enterainment facilities are in good operation”, “Multiple choices of in-flight entertainment”, Flight attendants' sincerity and patience in resolving passengers' problems”,” Sincere and responsive attitude's flight attendants to passengers complaints”, “ Individual attention to passengers of flight attendants”, “Flight attendants' knowledge to respond passengers' requests”, “Understanding the specific needs of passengers”, “Ability of flight attendants to communicate with various languages, and dielects” In those items, there is one item of tangibility, one item of responsiveness, one item of empathy, seven items of assurance Thus, the assurance criteria of Vietnam Airlines about its on-board services are not perceived as high as the reliability ones and other factors The ten items involve two important issues of any airlines: phisycal evidence and human factors In this study, they are in-flight entertainment and flight attendants Since all five dimensions of service quality has positive effects on the customer satisfaction, these factors need to be carefully examined and improved to assure that the airline can always offer its passengers sustained and high quality of in-flight services Vietnam Airlines is considerd as one of sizeable airlines in Asia with 70 percent modern airplanes in the total number of seventy airplanes (VNA annual Report,2009) These modern airplanes are well-equipped allowing Vietnam Airlines to offer passengers the best entertainment services However, the results of this survey exposed that customer satisfaction of Vietnam Airlines’ passengers on entertainment services is not as high as its real capability It means Vietnam Airlines should take full advantage of its modern airplanes to satisfy the increasing passengers’ needs Quality of in-flight services does not depend on airplane facilities but also 61 much on flight attendants Therefore, Vietnam Airlines should pay more attention to their flight attendents’ skill and attitude of caring passengers who critically need their help when they are on board The flight staff should care sincerely and responsively for passengers at heart not simply a duty so that the passengers can highly appreciate Vietnam Airlines’ assurance of in-flight service quality Besides, passengers with different frequency of air travelling not perceive equally the quality of in-flight services In this study, passengers who often travel by air, perceived the quality of in-flight services lower than passengers, who rarely or sometimes travel by air This is because regular air-travellers have more experiences in on-board services so they can easily compare the Vietnam Airlines’ services to other famous airlines, which have many flight routes similar to Vietnam Airlines such as Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, Malyasia Airlines Because the cost of serving existing customers are less than the new customers (Reicheld, 1996), Vietnam Airlines should not only create a positive difference in offering on-board services to passengers who not often travel by air, but also assure their service quality superior and constant to passengers who often travel by air with ever-lasting improvement inflight services 5.3 Implication This study used the SERVQUAL modal and the scale of SERVPEX to conduct the survey in airline industry to measure service quality Therefore, this study can apply for measuring airline service quality, especially for evaluating customer satisfaction of in-flight services Besides, the results of the survey are useful for Vietnam Airlines in improving their in-flight service quality in practice to enhance and remain its competitive advantages 62 References I English Babakus, Emin, Bienstock, Carol C, Van Scotter, James R Linking Perceived Quality and Customer Satisfaction to store traffic and revenue growth Decision Sciences, Fall 2004 Buttler F, (1995) SEVQUAL: Review, critique, research agenda European Journal of Marketing Chang, D., & Lim, S (2002) Measuring airline’s 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a … Rarely b … sometimes c.… Often What type of ticket you often buy? a … Business b … Economy Your nationality is PART II - TARGET QUESTIONS Direction: The following set of statements relates to your feelings about in-flight services of Vietnam Airlines (VNA) Each statement shows the extent that you believe that VNA in-flight services have the feature described and how you feel about it There are five level of feeling to reflect your perceptions about the in-flight services: (1): Much worse than expected; (2): Worse than expected; (3): Equal to expected; (4): Better 66 than expected (5): Much more than expected Please tick one of any columns for each statement that shows how strong your feelings are Much more than expected Better than expected Equal to expected Worse than expected Much worse than expected Statements Code A Tangibility Tan1 Appearance of the flight crew Tan2 Uniform of the flight attendants Tan3 Variety of food choices of high quality Tan4 Variety of drink choices of high quality Tan5 Seating facilities Tan6 Multiple choices of in-flight entertainment Tan7 Cabin ventilation Tan8 Toilet arrangements are in good condition Tan9 Modern facilities for in-flight services B Reliability Rel1 Flight crew perform duties confidently Rel2 Flight attendants perform services right the first time Rel3 Flight attendants serve meals on time Rel4 Safety and health of catering C Responsiveness Flight crew’s capability to respond to emergency Res1 Res2 Res3 Res4 Res5 situations Fight crew’s capability to respond to cancelled or delayed flights Prompt attention to passengers’ specific needs Understanding the specific needs of passengers Keep passengers informed about time of service and necessary announcements D Assurance Ass1 Entertainment facilities are in good operation Ass2 Variety of interesting entertainment programs Ass3 Courteous flight staff Ass4 Flight attendants’ knowledge and skillful of in-flight services 67 Much more than expected Better than expected Equal to expected Worse than expected Much worse than expected Statements Code Ass5 Flight attendants’ knowledge to respond passengers’ requests Ass6 Individual attention to passengers of flight attendants Ass7 Ass8 Sincere and responsive attitude’s flight attendants to passengers complaints Flight attendants’ sincerity and patience in resolving passengers’ problems E Empathy Ability of flight attendants to communicate with various Emp1 languages and dialects Emp2 Flight attendants’ willingness to help passengers Emp3 Spontaneous care and concern for passengers’ needs Emp4 Frequent cabin service rounds by flight attendants Overall Overall in-flight services Thank you very much! 68 ... passengers’perceptions on Vietnam Airlines in-flight services; (2) detecting the pros and cons of Vietnam Airlines in-flight services; (3) proposing recommendations to improve the Vietnam Airlines in-flight services. .. examining customer satisfaction of in-flight services of Vietnam Airlines This part refers to theory of (1) service quality; (2) in-flight services; (3) customer satisfaction 2.1 Service Quality Gronroos... occupation, income, frequency of air travelling, and nationality as items of demographic character for the respondents of the survey on customer satisfaction of Vietnam Airlines? ?? on- board services