Service Quality and Passengers’ Satisfaction of Airline Operations in Nigeria

The study evaluates passengers’ satisfaction with the service quality of international airlines at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Nigeria. The study randomly selects 4 out of 27 international airlines operating at the airport for the survey. A purposive sampling technique was employed to select 100 respondents in each of the airlines since the study population could not be ascertained. A structured questionnaire was administered on the passengers when waiting to board the aircraft to elicit information on their travel characteristics and perceived satisfaction with the services rendered by the airlines using a five-point Likert scale. The data collected on passengers’ satisfaction with the airline’s service quality was analyzed using the servqual model while multiple regression model was used to predict the effect of service quality dimensions on passengers’ satisfaction with the airlines. The result of the servqual model shows that the passenger satisfaction rating of reliability dimension (0.66) is the highest followed by responsiveness (0.52), empathy (0.52), tangible (0.41), and assurance (0.36) has the least rating. Similarly, the result of regression model reveals that the coefficients of four dimensions reliability (β = 0.683; p ≤ 0.01), empathy (β = 0.656; p ≤ 0.01), responsiveness (β = 0.409; p ≤ 0.01) and tangible (β = 0.364; p ≤ 0.01) had statistically significant influence on passengers’ satisfaction of the airlines. The study concludes that service quality influences passengers’ satisfaction with international airline operations in Nigeria. The study recommends useful policy actions aimed at improving service quality to allow airlines to enjoy continuous loyalty and patronage by the passengers.