Low cost airlines are becoming aggressive competitors to full service airlines. As of today, there are many low cost airlines (LCAs) or also so called, low cost carriers (LCCs) in which offered both domestic and international flights that offered low fare in competing with full service airlines. With their expansions and business model, it allows LCCs to take over the market shares. Another aspect that LCC needs to be aware of is cultural differences where different countries or nationalities have different beliefs or the differences in perceiving values. In terms of cultural differences, it may have influences on passenger’s purchase intention and how passengers select their airlines to fly. Income is another issue where it limits the choices of each passenger to decide whether which airline is suitable for his or her selection of flights. It is very important to look at the different determinants toward LCC passenger loyalty between Thai and International passengers.
This research was conducted to investigate the different determinants of passenger loyalty between Thai and International passengers. Variables that are investigated in this research are service employee self-efficacy, service recovery, price, passenger satisfaction and passenger trust (Independent variables). These five independent variables were used to see their relationships to passenger loyalty (Dependent variable) between Thai and International passengers to see if there are any differences among these two groups and the results may be useful and beneficial for marketers to come up with different marketing strategies. Data was analyzed with IBM SPSS 20 by using Independent Sample T-Test and Multiple Regression Analysis to see which independent variables has an influence to passenger loyalty and compare the differences between two groups. The result shows that there is significant difference on service employee self-efficacy between Thai and International passengers toward passenger loyalty. Whereas, price, passenger satisfaction, and passenger trust are significantly influenced passenger loyalty, but there are no differences between Thai and International passengers among these three variables. Interestingly, the variable “service recovery” has no influenced toward passenger loyalty nor the differences between Thai and International passengers. According to results, it suggests that LCC needs to adjust marketing strategies that would fit with their target groups to gain reputation and retain the loyal ones or recruit the new loyal customers for the benefits of its own airline
