Perceived onboard passengers' experience: Flight attendants' point of view

Abstract

Background: Cabin research is mostly based on passenger reports. However, it is also important to consider the perceptions of flight attendants as onboard service providers, since they can convey a complementary view shedding light on important aspects related to passenger experience.

Objective: This study seeks to analyze flight-attendants' perception regarding passengers' inflight activities and experience.

Methods: Twenty-eight flight attendants were interviewed on more than twenty-three inflight activities that were extracted from a brainstorming session. A survey was designed based on these activities and was distributed to flight attendants.

Results: Overall, flight attendants perceived the activities 'resting/relaxing', 'sleeping' and 'using the restroom' for comfort as the most important activities to passengers, while activities 'talking to neighbors' and 'thinking and observing' were the least important ones. Interesting was the fact that flight attendants scored satisfaction of some activities higher then passengers.

Conclusions: Flight attendants had a similar idea on importance of activities of passengers, but they valued some activities as more satisfactory.

Keywords: Passenger satisfaction; activities; cabin design; flight attendant; participatory design; passenger experience.