Determination of factors affecting the quality of services offered at the domestic departures: A case of Trabzon Airport

The purpose of this study is to determine the factors which impact the service quality offered at the domestic departures areas. In order to achieve this objective, a detailed survey was designed based on the literature. The survey questioned domestic airline passengers about a variety of airport services such as: the quality of ground transportation to the airport, security measures, check-in procedures, the conduct of airport service personnel, terminal-based services, passenger comfort within the airport, availability of shopping and dining outlets, efficiency of physical layout, adequacy of signage in the airport facilities, and many other services. Data were collected at the check-in area of the domestic departures section of the Trabzon Airport. Based on passenger transportation statistics, Trabzon is the 9th largest airport of the 55 airports in Turkey. For this data collection, the days of highest traffic (Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday) were selected over a two-week span to distribute the questionnaires. Out of 300 distributed questionnaires, 176 self-administered surveys were deemed acceptable, and used for data analysis. Exploratory factor analysis was used to analyze the data. 14 factors emerged from this analysis. However, these factors revealed by the factor analysis were not the same as those expected. Therefore, the survey was re-designed with the help of a panel of airport expert reviewers. Some of the questions were deleted and others re-written. After the survey re-design, out of 700 distributed questionnaires, 502 usable surveys were used to run the factor analysis. After this second factor analysis, six factors emerged. Measurable Factors were named: Security & Check-in, Shopping & Dining, Terminal Services, Transportation, Comfort, and Visibility of Information.