Experience-driven value creation in digital airline self-service systems: evidence from a low-cost carrier context

This study examines an experience-driven value creation mechanism in digital airline self-service systems in the low-cost carrier (LCC) context. It focuses on a setting less frequently studied in customer experience research: digitally mediated, low-contact airline services in which booking, check-in, and boarding interfaces function as customer touchpoints embedded in standardized passenger-service processes. From a passenger logistics perspective, these interfaces are part of standardized passenger-service systems through which customers complete sequenced service tasks with limited employee contact. Drawing on means-end theory and service-dominant logic, the study models customer experience (CX) as an antecedent of customer-perceived value (CPV) and behavioral intentions (BIs). Survey data were collected from 330 passengers of a European LCC operating in France and were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The analysis reports positive and statistically significant CX → CPV and CPV → BIs effects. The main empirical evidence concerns the indirect CX → CPV → BIs path, whereas the direct CX → BIs path is small in magnitude. In the final model, the CPV composite comprises utilitarian value/control and emotional value. No statistically significant generational cohort moderation is detected in this sample, and robustness checks indicate that the mediated CX → CPV → BIs path remains positive and statistically significant when value-for-money perceptions and travel frequency are considered. The study applies CX theory to low-contact airline environments and examines digital self-service interfaces as passenger touchpoints within standardized LCC service processes. For managers, the results underscore the importance of CX in digitally mediated LCC journeys and direct attention to interface clarity and low-friction task completion.