Diffusion of the Airport Health Accreditation Program in the COVID-19 period: An Assessment with Institutional Logic And Legitimacy Approach

The purpose of this study is to reveal the reason for the diffusion of Airports Health Accreditation among airports. Institutional logic and legitimacy literature are used in the research. The research area consists of 56 airports from different parts of the world. In the research, a qualitative research method was used. Document analysis was used as a data collection method, and descriptive content analysis was used as a data analysis method. According to the results of the research, there are two basic logic and legitimacy seeking that lead airport to this certificate. The first of these is moral legitimacy and professional logic. Accordingly, airports want to be seen as legitimate by professional actors in their institutional environment by certifying that they have taken the necessary measures against COVID-19 threats. The second is pragmatic legitimacy and market logic. According to this remarkable result of the research, one of the important reasons for the airports to turn to this accreditation is to meet the expectations of the customers and gain legitimacy in their eyes. Airports use this accreditation to rebuild trust in the eyes of customers and passengers, to create an airport reputation that took the necessary measures during the pandemic period, to be preferred again, and to revitalize airports.