Evaluating effective criteria on customer satisfaction using the best-worst method and optimizing resource allocation, case study Iran aseman airlines

Today airlines have a special place in passenger transport. Iran Aseman Airlines (IAA)is one of the top airlines in Iran that has been able to occupy a significant share of the Iranian aviation market in recent years. In addition to this company, there are other powerful companies that have forced IAA to update the services and improve the quality of services provided to increase customer satisfaction in the existing competitive environment. There is an urgent call for large companies for optimizing resource allocation to enhance customer satisfaction to survive in the business environment. In this study, the most important factors affecting customer satisfaction in Aseman Airlines were identified and ranked by the Best-Worst Method to allocate resources to increase customer satisfaction optimally. Airline's resources were identified in four different categories: class holding, rewarding, human resource allocation, and direct costs to enhance customer satisfaction. According to the weight of the factors considered by customers and the airline's limitations, an Integer Linear Programming Model was developed, and finally, Practical solutions to improve performance were given to senior managers. •Evaluating and ranking the effective criteria on customer satisfaction in the Iran Aseman Airlines (IAA).•Optimizing the resource allocation in the company to enhance the service quality.•Applying the best-worst (BWM) method to efficiently calculate the relative importance of the customer satisfaction criteria.•Developing an integer linear programing (ILP) mathematical model to tackle the problem and characterize the optimal solution.