IRJMST Vol 7 Issue 11 [Year 2016] ISSN 2250 – 1959 (0nline) 2348 – 9367 (Print) International Research Journal of Management Science & Technology http://www.irjmst.com Page 260 CUSTOMER PERCEPTION OF SERVICE QUALITY COMPONENTS; AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF INDIAN DOMESTIC AIRLINES INDUSTRY Ms. Aishwarya Goyal 1 ; Dr. Sonia Chawla 2 ; Dr. B.B. Goyal 3 1 Research Scholar, IKGPTU, Jalandhar, email: goaishwarya@gmail.com 2 Professor, Department of Management, DAVIET, Jalandhar, email: mimitrohit@gmail.com 3 Professor, University Business School, Panjab University Chandigarh,email: goyalubs@yahoo.com ABSTRACT Service sector is the lifeline for the social economic growth of a country. It is today the largest and fastest growing sector globally contributing more to the global output and employing more people than any other sector. Due to growing competition and globalisation the concept of services quality has gained importance in recent years. To survive in this competitive situation there is a need to firstly understand the customer perception of service quality and then to effectively implement it. The present study is an attempt to understand the customer perception of service quality components in domestic airlines industry in India. The data is collected from 342 Domestic bound air passengers at Chandigarh, Delhi and Amritsar Airport by using convenience random sampling technique. Responses of customers were analyzed with the help of factor analysis. Eleven factors were extracted. The result shows that the Services available are the most important factor in forming the customer perception regarding service quality in domestic airlines industry. The findings of this paper will benefit the airlines companies to create better satisfaction to the customers. Key words: service quality, domestic airlines, customer perception, service quality components Introduction Delivering superior service quality by understanding customer expectations is a key for success and survival in very hectic and competitive environment of airline industry (Gilbert & Wong,2003; Chen & Chang, 2005). High level of service quality is vital to acquire and retain loyal customers (Chang &Yeh, 2002). Nevertheless, service quality in airline industry is widely discussed and bad performance is often criticized publicly. Maintaining high level of service quality is most important to acquire and retain loyal customers. In today‟s liberalized economy the superior service quality leads to customer satisfaction and loyalty, which helps in gaining competitive advantage. As now the customers are well aware and service quality is more visible, so passengers may use it as a base for judging the overall quality of an airline the only true assets of the airlines are their customers. The quality of service depends on „moment of truth‟ (i.e. the first contact of a customer with an airline which makes cu stomer first impression of the service quality of the airline) Carlzon (1987). Service quality Customer satisfaction is one of the objectives of marketing activity linking the process of purchasing and consumption with post purchase phenomena. Satisfying customers is an important element in marketing concept (Kotler & Armstrong, 2004) as it affects future consumer purchase behavior, profitability and shareholder value. (Chitty, Ward & Chua, 2007). As Satisfaction is defined as a person‟s feelings of pleasure or disappointment that results from comparing a pro duct‟s perceived performance or outcome with their expectations (Kotler & Keller, 2009, p. 789). Customer expectation can be defined as customer‟s pre trial beliefs about a product (Mckinney, Yoon and Zahedi 2002). Expectations are viewed as predictions made by consumers about what is likely to happen during impending transaction or exchange (Zethaml and Berry 1988).