The relationship between the service quality of airports and that of their dominant airlines

This study empirically examines the correlation between the quality of service of airports and that of the dominant airlines at those airports, using the service quality scores of 126 pairs of airports and their dominant airlines from 2013 to 2017. The cause–effect relationship between the service quality of the airports and the airlines was assessed by analysing longitudinal scores of four high-quality airports and their dominant airlines from 2008 to 2017. Results showed that, globally, the service quality of airports and their dominant airlines were highly positively correlated; however, a unidirectional cause–effect relation between airports and their dominant airlines was not identified. These results offer important implications for policy makers. Copyright © 2018 Henry Stewart Publications.