Impact of perception of COVID-19 on NPI, job satisfaction, and customer orientation: Highlighting three types of NPIs for the airline industry

Without vaccines or pharmaceutical treatments for a viral pandemic, non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) such as washing hands and wearing masks are likely the most effective ways to control infections at airports and on airplanes. Although the aviation market is a major entry point for viruses, little is known about how flight attendants view the risk of COVID-19 and whether they follow individual-organizational-governmental NPI protocols. Guided by protection motivation theory (Rogers, 1975), this study proposed an NPI model tailored specifically to the airline industry and examined how an extended NPI would affect job satisfaction and customer orientation of Korean flight attendants (n = 371). Results revealed that perceptions of COVID-19 are positively related to three types of NPIs, which in turn positively influenced job satisfaction and customer orientation. Given that the examined three types of NPIs had not been paid attention in previous research, the study's proposed conceptual model should better guide the airline industry in protecting its flight attendants with NPI strategies inside and outside aircraft. •Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) are the best hygiene strategy for reducing viral transmissions.•Flight attendants who are fearful of and risk-averse to COVID-19 will likely practice NPIs while working on aircraft.•NPI items were classified into three domains: ‘individual NPI’, ‘organizational NPI’, and ‘governmental NPI’.•Perception of COVID-19 was a significant predictor of all three-types of NPI.•NPIs were significantly related to job satisfaction (JS) and NPI indirectly influenced customer orientation via JS.