Antecedents and outcome of passenger delight in the full-service airlines sector in Saudi Arabia
Abdullah Abdulaziz AlhumudPurpose
This study aims to examine passenger delight and its effects on memorable travel experiences in Saudi Arabia’s full-service airline (FSA) market. The study uses cognitive appraisal theory (CAT) to examine how staff self-efficacy, service recovery, price consciousness and Islamic services affect passenger delight and trip memorability. Islamic service offerings have been researched in hospitality, but not in FSAs’ frontline staff self-efficacy and price consciousness, notably customer delight and memorability. This work develops and evaluates a full Saudi aviation model to cover that gap. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) results demonstrate that price consciousness and Islamic service alignment greatly impact passenger delight, which predicts a memorable travel experience. Showing how cultural congruence and operational confidence synergistically impact emotional and affective outcomes in Muslim-majority service settings strengthens Islamic marketing theory.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a quantitative research design, the study used a structured survey distributed to passengers of Saudi Airlines at King Khalid (RUH) and King Abdulaziz (JED) International Airports in 2024. A total of 580 complete responses were analyzed using SEM via AMOS to test hypothesized relationships among the constructs.
Findings
The study’s results show that passenger delight is enhanced significantly by staff self-efficacy, price consciousness, service recovery and the availability of Islamic services. In addition, passenger delight is a significant predictor travel experience memorability. Thus, operational service factors and their alignment with the culture of passengers both have important roles to play in the creation of passenger delight and making travel experiences memorable.
Research limitations/implications
The findings offer actionable insights for FSA managers, emphasizing the importance of staff empowerment, culturally sensitive service offerings and transparent pricing strategies. By fostering delight, airlines can generate emotionally resonant and memorable experiences that drive long-term passenger loyalty.
Practical implications
FSA managers will find actionable insights in these findings. Airlines can create memorable travel experiences with emotional resonance by fostering passenger delight, which in turn strengthens long-term passenger loyalty. Practically, this can be achieved by empowering frontline employees, implementing competitive and transparent pricing strategies, strengthening service recovery practices, and providing culturally sensitive Islamic services.
Originality/value
This study makes important contributions to the body of research on airline service. First, it makes use of CAT to understand passengers’ emotional responses. Second, it incorporates the provision of Islamic services as an antecedent of passenger delight, which is culturally embedded, thereby enhancing existing customer experience models for non-Western contexts.