Impact of Customer Satisfaction with In-flight Catering to Airline Research Proposal

Impact of Customer Satisfaction with In-flight Catering to Airline Reputation and Profit - Research Proposal Example This research proposal offers to explore an issue of in-flight catering and its impact to airline ratings, competitiveness, and profits of an airline. In-flight catering is one of the major services that have been associated with flights for a long time. This and other on-board services have been provided to long distance flight customers since the beginning of air passenger flights decades ago. In recent years, in-flight catering has come under increasing scrutiny by customers and the media with perceptions about meal quality being given greater attention. In most airline markets, different types of services are operated to cater for different kinds of customers. The services are largely differentiated in terms of cost and distance of flight. According to King, budget airlines and low-cost carriers offer limited on-board catering reminiscent of the flight costs of the airlines; customer expectations about catering service quality are therefore lower than in long-haul flights. Long d istance flights continue to offer significant on-board services including catering, these are open to customer scrutiny with regard to quality and in-flight catering is one of the services that has clearly affected airline ratings over the years. Customers have sometimes characterized airline food as being uninspiring and tasteless. With current competition levels it is evident that customers are increasingly taking notice of airline catering when choosing flights; this may have a bearing on airline reputation and profits over time.