Proposing a novel combined passenger satisfaction measurement model

Purpose This paper aims to propose a combined passenger satisfaction measurement model for two main stakeholders of air transportation: airlines and airports. Design/methodology/approach We embraced the card sorting approach and consulted academics to merge the airline-airport service attributes. As a case study of the combined satisfaction model, we derived passenger evaluations of the flag carriers of the ten busiest European states and their hub airports. We adopted the integrated method based on the removal effects of criteria (MEREC)–alternative ranking order method accounting for two-step normalization (AROMAN)–necessary condition analysis (NCA) trilateral procedure to weight the criteria, rank the alternatives and determine the must-have service attributes. Moreover, we executed a three-stage sensitivity analysis to validate the robustness of the findings obtained by MEREC-AROMAN. Findings MEREC suggested that food and beverage service has the highest evaluation score. AROMAN revealed that Aegean-Athens International Airport ranks first. NCA demonstrated that entertainment service has the highest effect size, implying that passenger satisfaction performance is most sensitive to entertainment. Originality/value The originality of this paper is twofold. The former is the novel integrated passenger satisfaction measurement model proposal, while the latter combines necessity logic by NCA and optimization logic by multi-criteria decision-making.