Examining the Connection between Service Failure and Recovery with Airline Passenger Satisfaction with Air Asia

A firm's service failure and the way it addresses it can have a significant impact on customer satisfaction and their overall relationship with the company. This is true even when the company has put in substantial efforts to build strong, long-term relationships with its customers. Airline companies, in particular, face various challenges that affect their survival over time. One of these challenges is dealing with inevitable service failures. The goal of this study is to understand how service failure and recovery relate to passenger satisfaction specifically within AirAsia. Data was collected from 361 domestic travelers departing from Sultan Ismail Petra Airport in Kelantan. Convenience sampling was used for this study. The results showed that there is a significant negative correlation between service failure and passenger satisfaction, while service recovery has a positive impact on passenger satisfaction. The implications suggest that the management team and staff should implement effective recovery strategies to address failures, including well-planned corrective actions, sincere apologies, taking responsibility for any mishaps, and other measures. Frontline employees need to be attuned to customers' emotions during service failures; effective recovery efforts can help prevent negative customer reactions.