An examination of the nature of service recovery within the airline industry and its impact on customer loyalty

Abstract

Expansion of the airline market has resulted in an increase of service

failures with a 30% rise in airline complaints in 2015 (Park and Park 2016;

Eilliott 2016). Airlines across the globe have been facing severe

competition from low-cost carriers (Wise Guy Reports 2017) and therefore

retaining customer loyalty after service failures has never been more

critical in the sector (Johan et al. 2014). There has been limited discussion

about how service recovery can be used to rebuild loyalty and improve

customer retention in the airline context (Park and Park 2016). This paper

aims to address the issue of understanding and implementing service

recovery strategies by synthesizing theoretical and empirical knowledge

on service recovery into a clear conceptual framework. The paper

examines the antecedents of successful service recovery and customer

loyalty and applies the proposed framework to the airline