AIRPORT CONGESTION AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AT SMALL AIRPORTS IN INDONESIA

Abstract

Congestion is a growing trend at major airports in Indonesia, as there is a general sense of what to expect when a hub or home airport begins approaching maximum capacity. Airports increased their capacity, safe and secure operations. Given that airports – which used to be known as local monopolies – now operate in a competitive environment, they now have invested massively in facilities to ensure customer satisfaction. In this research, the researchers aim to study whether airport congestion impacts customer satisfaction at secondary airports in Indonesia. The research will take place at Adisucipto International Airport in Yogyakarta, Central Java, Indonesia, known as congested small airports. The utilization rate is exceeding 370% of its planned capacity. The researchers specifically targeted departing international passengers at Terminal A during peak hours (6:00 AM – 8:00 AM) and did secondary research towards those leaving outside the airport’s peak hours (9:00 AM – 12:00 PM). The research approach is a descriptive analysis using questionnaires to 253 respondents (123 peak hour passengers & 130 non-peak hour passengers) to measure their expectations and perceived qualities at the airport. Based on the comprehensive service quality model, SERVQUAL, developed by Parasuraman, Zeithamal, and Berry (1988) and data processing using IBM’s SPSS, the researchers found no significant correlation between departure time and passengers’ perceptions in all five service dimensions. However, the discrepancy (gap) value between expectations and perceptions during non-peak hour departures is higher than that of the airport’s peak hour departures.