Customer Satisfaction in Gulf Air

Jameela
Zahra Ali Ahmed 20104734
Fatima
Submitted to: Dr. Mahmood Asad
1. Introduction

1.1 Airline History

In 1973 Gulf air announced to be controlled by gulf countries (Bahrain,

Oman, Qatar, and UAE). At the end of the year the company reached a
growth by reported aviation week & space technology and had employed
over 800 employees. In 1976 they become more than 3300.

Gulf air posted a record profit of $51.8 million in 1983 when it carried 6.6
million passengers. Over all this success of the company, the backward had
begun by 1986; unfortunately, gulf air was posting the first loss of the
decade by ($ 5.5 million) as a result of the decline of the revenue received
by region’s oil.

In 1987 Gulf air become more independent by opening the gulf aircraft
maintenance company in Abu Dhabi (GAMCO), Boeing 767 and Airbus
A430 added to the fleet which are contributed to the development in Gulf air
significantly.

In 2003 the Gulf airline was completely owned by kingdom of Bahrain and
implements many plans to expand the company and improve performance.

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1.2 Background of the problem

Throughout the process of social and economic development, the world

nowadays is going from a manufacturing society to a service-oriented one.
The service sector is facing great competitive pressure. More and more
researchers are concerned about the service management and practices. The
Airlines is a typical service industry, facing increasingly intense
competition. Improving service quality for airlines to improve customer
satisfaction and loyalty is a vital element. Successful service quality
strategies are generally considered by customer segmentation, guarantees,
customized service, customer feedback, and measurement of company
performance. Although this process is generally acknowledged, is not really
implemented everywhere. In such a greatly competitive environment,
customer satisfaction has become an effective means for securing a firms’
profitability (e.g. Reichheld &Sasser, 1990; Reinartz & Kumar, 2002).
Customer Satisfaction is one of the most significant processes in airline
industry and is a key to the success of business.

1.3 Statement of the problem

This study provides a brief review of some of the related methods that have
been used for the measurement of customer expectation. The problem
statements for this research are:

a. To discover the aspects that customers evaluate for service quality and
performance.

b. To recognize the level of customers’ expectation of service quality and

performance for an airline.

The problem statement is generated from the consideration that service

quality is an important issue to get more customers, maintain the existing
ones and build loyalty. Basically, service provided at an airline company
might not be entirely implemented yet and needs some improvements. Also,
if a company would assess its own service, the perspectives of customers are

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very important. From the viewpoint of customers, the evaluation of service
quality will not be biased. What reflected from the customers’ point of view
could give a chance for a company to improve its service quality.

1.4 Purpose of the study

The purpose of this research is to measure Gulf Air’s customer satisfaction

which is a result of performance excellence, a method used by the company.

1.5 Research questions

 Gender statement
 Whether the person had travelled by Gulf Air Airline.
 Whether the services had met his/her requirements.
 Comfortable flight.
 Decide if the flights are on time or delayed and why.
 Degree of satisfaction.
 Quality of the services.
 Quality of performance.
 The way of booking.
 Suggestions.

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1.7 Limitations:

There were several factors that limited our study, such as insufficient time,
as we started to work on the report late due to other obligations and because
of the failure of the study of a previous chosen company which led us to start
over and choose another company investigate about. Another factor was the
inaccessibility to information; we could not conduct an interview with a
member of Gulf Air as it was planned because we did not have any kind of
access to the company.

1.8 Summary

The previous chapter explained the purpose of this report which is to

examine the customer satisfaction and the Performance Excellence in Gulf
Air Airline in Bahrain. The study aims to discover the degree of customer
satisfaction with the quality and performance of the company’s services. The
remaining sections will discuss the previous studies, the methods that were
used to measure the elements of the study, the analysis of the findings and
the suggestions.

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2. Literature review:

According to Criteria for Performance Excellence article (2011-2012),

Quality and Performance are judged by an organization’s customers. This
means that organizations have to consider all product characteristics that add
value to their customers in order to gain customer satisfaction and loyalty.
(P.56)
As the article mentions, “Customer engagement is an important outcome of
an overall learning and performance excellence strategy.” (2011-2012, P.39)
In their article Understanding Business Excellence, authors Robin Mann and
Theresa A. Agustin (2012) stated that the success and development of
business performance depend on keeping close relationships with customers.
“The key to provide an excellent service is in understanding the customer
expectation.” (Parasuraman, Berry & Zeithaml, 1991, P.39)
Satisfaction and quality result from comparing the level of performance
perceived and the level of performance expected by the consumer.
(Fitzsimmons & Fitzsimmons, 2001)
In the highly competitive airline industry, customers become the most
important factor of the whole producing process. Besides flight safety,
enhancing service quality, and therefore customer satisfaction, is the most
crucial strategies of the airlines (Fried, 1989; Gardner, 2004; Zaid, 1995).
According to Usman Khan and Noreen Khan (2014), it is very important to
acquire customer satisfaction because customers bring a lot of revenue with
them and due to that, the airlines will probably operate profitably. And the
airlines’ satisfied customers will probably reuse their services and create
good will for the companies. (P.63)

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“Airlines with satisfied customers will have more passengers.” (Usman
Khan, 2014, P.63)

3. Methodology

3.1 Introduction:

The type of research used for this study was an investigatory research which
is aimed at an audience with partial information level. The investigatory
methods undertaken for the purpose of finding information for this report are
newspapers, web sources and library. In addition, a survey was conducted
and distributed to a group of Gulf Air customers that included 30 students
and employees of both genders with diverse ages. Data collected from the
survey were analyzed by using accurate and precise methods.

3.2 Research design:

To gather thorough information for this study, a survey research design

was used. The reason this method of research was chosen is because surveys
are a powerful research tool and when they are designed well, they help in
obtaining an accurate representation of opinion. Also, surveys are easy to
administer, can be developed in less time than other methods and are cost-
effective. The questionnaire designed for this research was put together as
closed-end questions which were structured for respondents to choose from
a list of questions offered to them. The closed-end method gave the
respondents less effort to complete the questionnaire and it was easy for
analysis. Not only the questionnaire was distributed by hand, the

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respondents were given the choice to complete the survey through email as
well. The questionnaire aimed to predict the customer satisfaction using
independent variables of service quality like corporate image, customer
services and price, and the dependent variables used were customer
satisfaction and customer loyalty.

3.3 Population and Sampling:

The questionnaire was distributed to a total of 30 Gulf Air customers,
ranging from eighteen years old to above forty years old. Overall, sufficient
replies were received with a split between males (40%) and females (60%).
The research sample was based on non probability sampling and non
probability sampling techniques were selected in which units of the sample
are chosen on the basis of convenience and personal judgement.

3.4 Data Collection and Analysis:

As much data as possible were collected from questionaries that were
distributed to customers to fill in. The surveys were used to bring out
quality, service and performance data by asking a standardized set of
questions. The measurement of the data included latent variables, concepts
that are not directly measurable like customer satisfaction with services, and
manifest variables which are concepts that can be directly measured like
gender and age. Some of the questions in the survey measure the degree of
satisfaction or dissatisfaction using a scale. Although the scale is limited, it
gives the customer enough flexibility to express his/her opinion. A five point
scale was used with the endpoints fixed at 5 representing the case when the
customer is completely satisfied and 0 the case when the customer is not at
all satisfied. We used mathematical and statistical methods to analyze the
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data that has been collected in order to estimate the relations between the
variables and we adopted an approach to data analysis based on statistical
models that were displayed as graphs, by means of graphical models.

3.5 Summary:

This section outlined the methodology of the study, a survey research was
applied which is a powerful, easy to develop and non costly research tool.
The survey was distributed by hand and through email to 30 male and
female Gulf Air customers. To forecast the customer satisfaction, dependent
and independent variables were used. Moreover, non probability sampling
was carried out with sample unit based on convenience. Mathematical and
statistical methods were applied to analyze the data that were displayed as
graphs.

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4. Results and Findings:

4.1 Figures

Figure (4.1.1)

Gender
Male Female

40%

60%

The participation in the questionnaire resulted in 40% Male and 60% Female
of total 30 persons.

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Figure (4.1.2)

Age
Under 20 20-30 31-40 Above 40

10%
20%

30%

40%

The findings showed that the majority of respondents are aged between 20-
30 and the minority of them are aged 40 and above.

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Figure (4.1.3)

Traval Class
Economy Class Premier Economy Business Class First Class

20%

40%

30%

10%

Almost half of the respondents choose to travel in Economy class. Only 10%
travel in Premier Economy class.

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Figure (4.1.4)

Travel by Air in a year

Once Twice More than Twice

10%

30%
60%

As shown in the above figure, most of the respondents travel by air more
than twice a year. Only 10% of them travel no more than one time a year.

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Figure (4.1.5)

Main Perpose For Traveling

Vacation Bussines Trip Visit friends and relatives Other

10%
20%

30%

40%

The results of this question showed that the most of the respondents
would travel mainly for a business trip. The rest of them would either
travel for a vacation or to visit friends and relatives.

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Figure (4.1.6)

Return to an Airline
Airfares price Flight safety Quality of service

32% 32%

37%

The results of this question (Q.3) are very close. 31% of the respondents
declared that the main reason to re-travel with an airline is the airfares price.
37% declared that the main reason is the flight safety and 32% said it is the
quality of service.

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Figure (4.1.7)

Prefered Airline
Air Arabia British Airways Cathay Pacific Gulf Air Egypt Air
Etihad Airways Other

10% 10%

80%

80% of the respondents prefer traveling using Gulf Air airlines, 10% prefer
Etehad Airways and 10% would choose other airlines

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Figure (4.1.8)

Resonable Air-Ticket Prices

YES NO

50% 50%

The number of respondents that believe that Gulf Air’s air-ticket prices are
reasonable was exactly the same as the ones that believe they are not
reasonable.

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Figure (4.1.9)

Air-Hosts behavior
1 2 3 4 5

7%

13%
33%

20%

27%

As we can notice in this figure, the majority of the respondents think

that Gulf Air’s air-hosts’ behavior is very good and only 7% of them
rated their behavior as significantly poor.

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Figure (4.1.10)

Flight Servies
Excellent Good Fair Poor

5%
5%

50%
40%

According to the responses to question 6 in the questionnaire, half of the

respondents (50%) claimed that Gulf Air’s flight services are excellent,
while only 5% of them claimed that the services are fair or poor.

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Figure (4.1.11)

Flight Time
YES NO

10%

90%

The respondents were asked whether Gulf Air flights normally depart
and reach destinations on time. 27 out of the 30 respondents answered
with yes, and only 3 of them said that the flights are not timely.

Figure (4.1.12)

Check in - waiting
Time
YES NO

50% 50%

Exactly half of the respondents suppose that there should be improvements

in Gulf Air’s Check in - waiting time.

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Figure (4.1.13)

Servies Effeciency
( check -in )
YES
NO

20%

80%

Most of the respondents think that the service efficiency during check-in
does not need to be improved.

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Figure (4.1.14)

Staff Assistance At
Arrival
YES
NO

10%

90%

Almost all respondents stated that Gulf Air’s staff assistance during arrival
should not be improved.

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Figure (4.1.15)

Bag Deliviry

YES
NO
10%

90%

90% of respondents believe that there is no need for improvements in Gulf

Air’s luggage delivery.

Figure (4.1.16)

Gulf AIR Rating

1 2 3 4 5

7%

13%
33%

20%

27%

Overall, 33% of the respondents are very satisfied with Gulf Air and 7% are
not satisfied.

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4.2 Summary of findings:

The main findings show that the majority of airlines’ customers travel more
than twice a year for the purpose of business and would return to an airline
for its airfares price, flight safety, and quality of service. The results also
show that customers prefer Gulf Air over all other airline companies in
Bahrain, which they believe has fairly reasonable air-ticket prices.
Moreover, most of Gulf Air customers think that its flight services are
excellent, the behavior of the air-hosts is very good, and the flights normally
depart and land right on time. Nearly all the customers suppose that Gulf Air
services do not need improvements, however there are a few that believe
areas like Check-in waiting time, Service efficiency during check-in, Staff
assistance during arrival and Bag delivery should be improved.

5. Discussion, Conclusions and Recommendations

5.1 Discussion:

The purpose of the study was to investigate whether Gulf Air’s use of
Performance Excellence affects its customer satisfaction. The findings
clearly suggest that it does. Our research proved that the use of Performance
Excellence is helping Gulf Air maintain excellent, high-quality services
which leads to satisfying the customers’ needs. This supports and adds to the
findings of Usman Khan and Noreen Khan (2014), which showed similar
results about how it is important to acquire customer satisfaction for an
airline to operate profitably and airlines’ satisfied customers will probably
reuse their services. The research did however look at a narrow range, due to
the inability to access the company’s information to gain an exact
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knowledge about the company’s current performance and to what level its
customers are satisfied.

5.2 Conclusion:

The report examined the customer satisfaction in Gulf Air which is a result
of the use of Performance Excellence. Based on the above findings, most of
airlines’ customers travel twice or more in a year, usually for business trips,
and would reuse an airline services because of its airfares price, flight safety,
and quality of service. The customers of Gulf Air prefer its services over
other airline companies and they are generally satisfied with the company’s
services, which include the on time departures and arrivals, the behavior of
the air-hosts, and the air-ticket prices. The results proved that the key to
offer an excellent service is in recognizing the customer expectations.

5.3 Recommendations:

Based on the findings illustrated above, this report recommends that Gulf
Air:

 Maintain its customer power and stay on top of the competition in the
market.
 Understand the plans being pursued by other airlines in improving the
quality of service and comfort they provide to their customers.
 Continue to differentiate itself by examining the strengths,
weaknesses, strengths and opportunities.

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 Try to keep its reputation as one of the leading airlines in Bahrain for
providing the best quality to their customers.
 Offer the quality and comfort of either the same value or even higher
to its customers.
 Expand its operations in more countries all over the world, to remain
the competitive and to increase its profits.

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6. References

Heracleous, L. and Wirtz, J. (2006), “Biometrics – the next frontier in service excellence,
productivity and security in the service sector”, Managing Service Quality, Vol. 16 No. 1,
pp. 12-22.

Porter, M. (1985), Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance, Free
Press, New York, NY.

Yagil, D. (2002), “The relationship of customer satisfaction and service workers’ perceived
control – examination of three models”, International Journal of Service Industry
Management, Vol. 13 No. 4, pp. 382-98.

Schneider, B. and Bowen, D.E. (1995), Winning the Service Game, Harvard Business School
Press,
Boston, MA.

Nelson, N., “Measuring Customer Satisfaction,” Centerlines,

Dec. 2010.

Hazel, R.A., J.D. Blais, T.J. Browne, and D.M. Benzon, ACRP Report 19A:
Resource Guide to Airport Performance Indicators, Transportation Research
Board of the National Academies, Washington D.C., 2011.

Paternoster, J., “Excellent Airport Customer Service,” Airport Management, Vol. 2, No.
3, Apr. 2008, 218–226.

Airport Service Quality, Introduction to ASQ Survey: Measuring and Benchmarking

Passenger Satisfaction. Airports Council International, Montreal, QC, Canada, 2012.

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Questionnaire
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This questionnaire aims to investigate the customer satisfaction in Gulf Air
Airline.
The information will be kept confidential. Thank you for taking the time to
participate in our questionnaire. Your effort is greatly appreciated.

Personal Information:

Name (optional) :

Gender: Male Female

Age: Under 20 20-30 31-40 above 40

1- Which travel class do you choose mostly?

Economy Class
Premier Economy
Business Class
First Class

2- How often do you travel by air in a year?

Once
Twice
More than twice

3- What are your main purposes of traveling?

Vacation
Business trip
Visit friends and relatives
Other __________________
4- If you do return to an airline, why would you do so?
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 Airfares price
Flight safety
Quality of service

5- Which of these airlines do you prefer traveling with?

Air Arabia
British Airways
Cathay Pacific
Gulf Air
Egypt Air
Etihad Airways
Other ___________________

Kindly answer the following questions about Gulf Air:

6- Are the prices of air-tickets reasonable?

YES No

7- Rate the behavior of air-hosts from 1 to 5? (5 is very good behavior and

1 is significantly poor)

1 2 3 4 5

8- Rate the following in flight services:

Excellent Good Fair Poor

Quality of food :
Comfort of seating :
Cleanness of aircrafts:

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 9- Do the flights normally depart and reach the destination on time?

YES No

10- Do you think there should be improvements in any of the following

areas?

YES NO
a) Check in – waiting time
b) Services efficiency during check –in
c) Staff assistance during arrival
d) Bag delivery after arrival

11 - Considering all of the above features, what is your

overall rating of Gulf Air?

1 2 3 4 5

 Any comment __________________________________________

Thank you for taking the time to complete this questionnaire

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