Factors Affecting the Satisfaction Level on Marketing and Services of Thai Low-Cost Airlines Case study: Thai Elderly Passengers

Abstract

As a result of entering into a phase of anaging society in Thailand, the ratio of Thai elderly is getting higher each year. This will generally reflect trends of Thai consumer behavior which will vary according to a change in the percentage of the aging population. Elderly people, then, become a new customer base to which several business organizations are paying attention. The aviation industry, like many others, is paying a lot of attention to the increasing ratio of elderly passengers, especially the low-cost airlines. The Airlines business, itself, basically is a business that relies heavily on customer satisfaction. The purpose of this research is to study factors affecting marketing and services provided by Thai low-costairlines towards Thai elderly passengers. Through the application of the Purposive Samplingapproach, the sample used was 500 Thai elderly passengers who use low-costairlinesat Don Mueang International Airport. Descriptive Statistics and Ordered Logistic Regression were applied to analyze the factors that affect the satisfaction level in three areas: the airline's overall marketing image, the airline's personnel of the airlinesand the service standard of the airlines. The findings revealed that age, income per month and physical limitation of the elderly passengers affect the satisfaction level of the passengers against low-cost airlines. These results were much advantageous that each low-cost airline may take them into its considerationto further refer toor use as the ground for continuous development of its services to maintain the customer base and good image of the airlines.