International Research Symposium in Service Management
ISSN 1694-0938
PASSENGER PERCEPTIONS AND UNDERSTANDING
OF THE LOW-COST AND FULL-SERVICE AIRLINE
MODELS IN SOUTH AFRICA AND THE
IMPLICATIONS FOR SERVICE STRATEGY
A case study involving South African Airways, British
Airways (Comair), Kulula.com, Mango and 1time
Colin Diggines
Senior Lecturer
Centre for Business Management (CBM)
University of South Africa (UNISA)
PO Box 6948
ANSFRERE
1711
South Africa
0027124293940
0027826612847
cdiggines@unisa.ac.za
diggines@telkomsa.net
Le Meridien Hotel, Mauritius, 24-27 August 2010
1
International Research Symposium in Service Management
ISSN 1694-0938
PASSENGER PERCEPTIONS AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE LOWCOST AND FULL-SERVICE AIRLINE MODELS IN SOUTH AFRICA
AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR SERVICE STRATEGY
ABSTRACT
Purpose: The study, which duplicates a study conducted in Europe and Asia, was conducted to gain
an understanding of the perceptions South African passengers have of the low-cost carrier model and
the full-service carrier model and establish how these perceptions relate to choice of airline when
deciding to fly.
Design/methodology/approach: The research is exploratory in nature and used the survey method to
collect data at Cape Town and Johannesburg international airports in South Africa. Passengers were
interviewed with proportionate representation across the two full-service carriers, and the three lowcost carriers operating in the South African market. A service quality measurement instrument was
added to the questionnaire to rate the perception of service delivered by each airline.
Findings: It is shown that passengers have a limited understanding of the difference between the two
models. Fare was an important issue for low-cost passengers, with full-service passengers indicating
that quality and safety were more important than the fare. Although low-cost airline passengers have
a highly favourable perception of...