Service Quality Measurement of In-Flight Meal Service: A Comparison between Korean and Foreign-Based Airlines

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The current exploratory study investigates and compares the perceptions of the service quality of in-flight meals through the evaluation of recent consumers (within 2 weeks) of services provided by Korean and foreign-based airlines. Twenty (20) items for measuring service quality were categorized into three factor dimensions of 'food quality', 'employee service', and 'professionalism'. Among these, 'employee service' was rated highest by Korean and foreign-based airlines. When items representing each service quality dimension were analyzed and compared, only the 'food quality' dimension of Korean-based airlines was perceived higher than that of other foreign-based airlines. Findings also revealed a spectrum with some items with higher or lower mean values within each service quality dimension. Results of this study can expectedly be used to benefit both from a theoretical and practical point of view by providing empirical data that measure the service quality of in-flight meal service.