How to Outperform Airport Quality of Service: Qualitative and Quantitative Data Analysis Extracted from Airport Passengers Using Grounded Theory (GT) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)

The service quality of airports is a critical factor for passengers. To reach this goal, two phases are planned in this paper. First, several passengers were interviewed, focusing on unsatisfied passengers to understand what is missing and needs to be improved and be surveyed. A grounded theory method was applied to code the interview data. The results of this phase indicated that passengers’ characteristics, such as travel specifications, and details about services in different airport elements are essential factors that affect the level of travelers’ satisfaction. Second, to assure the validity of our findings, a survey was designed. To analyze the survey data, structural equation modeling (SEM) was implemented with 860 passengers. The SEM outputs pointed out that providing more facilities for passengers with disabilities or diseases, facilities for packing and wrapping passengers’ freight and information services have the highest priorities to promote the quality of service at airports.