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Exploring passenger perceptions of services and sustainability via online review analytics for airport assessing and diagnosing

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  • Hsiao, Yu-Hsiang
  • Li, Bing-Xun

Abstract

This study investigates passengers' perceptions of airport service quality and sustainability by analyzing user-generated online reviews. By applying topic modeling and semantic embeddings, the research quantifies passenger concerns and sentiments toward both traditional service aspects and sustainability-related features. The analysis covers 102 hub airports using reviews collected from the Skytrax website, enabling a comprehensive comparison across airports and an in-depth evaluation of individual performance. A diagnostic framework is developed to assess each airport's relative standing on service and sustainability dimensions, taking into account both internal performance and external competitiveness. The study further classifies service attributes into reverse, must-be, or attractive types through correlation analysis with passenger ratings, offering clear prioritization strategies for airport managers. Taoyuan International Airport is presented as a case study to demonstrate how the proposed approach supports actionable service diagnosis and benchmarking. The results reveal practical insights into how airports can better align service improvement efforts with passengers' expectations, particularly as sustainability becomes a more salient component of service perception. This research contributes to service quality management by offering a scalable and data-driven methodology for extracting customer insights, guiding airport service innovation and performance enhancement in a competitive and sustainability-conscious environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Hsiao, Yu-Hsiang & Li, Bing-Xun, 2026. "Exploring passenger perceptions of services and sustainability via online review analytics for airport assessing and diagnosing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:90:y:2026:i:c:s0969698925004436
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104664
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    References listed on IDEAS

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