Determinants of on-line booking loyalties for airline ticket purchasing

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to understand the impact of e-quality on costumer’s loyalty in the context of the online airplane ticket purchase. For this purpose, quality is divided in two dimensions: functional quality (based on E-S-QUAL model) and hedonic quality. The methodology applied was administered to 617 consumers of on-line airplane tickets via an airline’s website in 2009. Structural Equation Models were applied to study the impact. The results show that the functional and hedonic quality are positive significant for loyalty through perceived value. From a managerial perspective, this paper provides advice for the airline industry in the development of e-commerce to take advantage of the current situation of disintermediation and to achieve the loyalty of customers.