The Role of Digitalization in Enhancing Service Quality and Passenger Experience: A Study of Qatar Airways at Cochin International Airport

Abstract

The modern aviation environment is undergoing a paradigmatical change with an overhaul of the old paradigms of operational models in favour of highly integrated, data-oriented ecosystems. The change is especially sharp in the emerging markets with high growth potential such as India where an influx of growing passenger demand intersects with modernization of digital infrastructure providing both opportunities and threats to international airlines. The given research manuscript represents a comprehensive empirical study of the effects of digitalization on the quality of services and the passenger experience it focuses on the operations of Qatar Airways at Cochin International Airport (CIAL/COK). Being the pioneer airport in the world to achieve full solar-powered status and serving as a key point of entry of the South Indian diaspora into the Middle East, Cochin is a kind of unique phygital (physical and digital) laboratory. Based on the powerful theoretical framework that combines AIRQUAL scale and E-S-QUAL dimensions, a simulated dataset of 350 respondents will be used in this study to model the predictors of customer satisfaction in a post-pandemic world. The study examines the effectiveness of certain digital touchpoints, namely the Qatar Airways, the airline, mobile app ecosystem, and the deployments of CIAL, namely, the digital touchpoints of the airline, called the AI Skyways, and the digital touchpoints of the airport, called the DigiYatra and Fast Track Immigration - Trusted Traveller Programme (FTI-TTP). These results indicate a multifaceted service environment in which digital efficiency (app usability, biometric speed) has become a high predictive of satisfaction, statistically outflanking conventional soft service features (like staff empathy) in the mundane environment. The paper does find, however, a severe phenomenon of digital friction: the psychological and operational feeling of incongruence between the non-analogical flow of digital pre-flight operations and analog bottlenecks in airport security and immigration. The analysis indicates that Qatar Airways should invest in AI and digital baggage handling (BAGTAG) that leads to the increase in the perceived control and minimization of anxiety, but the service perception depends greatly on the digital maturity of the airport. This paper will add to the literature of aviation management by presenting an adapted version of the Digital-Integrated AIRQUAL model, as well as provide the strategic prescriptions to the carriers that can be found in Tier 2 international hubs.