TURNING THE SERVICE QUALITY APPROACH IN A DIFFERENT DIRECTION: MEASURING THE GROUND SERVICE QUALITY PERCEPTIONS OF AIRLINES BY THE SERVQUAL METHOD

This study aims to measure the service quality of ground handling companies. In this study, airline companies are evaluated in the context of customers. They were asked to assess the service they received from the handling company to reflect their satisfaction and expectations. SERVQUAL scale is used to measure the perceptions and expectations regarding service quality in order to make the said evaluation. Within the scope of the study, the SERVQUAL scale is applied to station managers, station chiefs, and supervisors of airlines receiving service from any ground handling company at Istanbul Atatürk Airport and Antalya International Airport, and supervisors working in representation/supervision businesses that hold 'Group C Working License' and carry out representation/supervision activities on behalf of airlines. Considering the results of the analysis for the measurement of ground handling quality, it is seen that the difference scores in both dimensions and items are negative. This means that service quality expectations are higher than perceived service quality. Researches on the measurement of service quality in the field of air transportation are generally focused on the measurement of airline service quality. This paper explains service quality measurement is carried out in the field of ground handling, where the body of literature is more limited.