Making Passenger’s Flight Experience Memorable: SEM Analysis Within the S-O-R Paradigm

The purpose of this study is to examine passenger experience through the relationships among servicescape dimensions, memorable flight experience, and positive emotion. Grounded in the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) paradigm, the research adopts a holistic perspective on the effects of airport and airline servicescapes (departure and arrival airport physical elements, airline physical elements, and airline personnel) on passengers’ internal evaluations and emotional responses. Data were collected via face-to-face surveys from passengers who had completed domestic flights at the arrival terminals of Istanbul Airport and Sabiha Gökçen Airport, and hypotheses were tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Findings reveal that the physical and human elements of airport and airline servicescapes exert significant influence on memorable flight experience, which in turn generates positive emotion. Memorable flight experience serves as a statistically significant partial mediator in the link between servicescape dimensions and positive emotion. Accordingly, this study demonstrates that passenger experience is shaped by perceptual and cognitive processes that extend across the entirety of the journey. The study aims to contribute to both the academic literature and the industry through its original findings, offering a holistic perspective and a range of practical insights.