ABSTRACT
In the previous chapters, a survey among passengers was often mentioned. In this chapter, the results of this study among 10,032 are described in more detail. The study does not focus on what is technologically feasible or interesting to do, but it focuses on what passengers currently experience. This experience is important because they are customers making new purchase decisions each day. According to some authors, the need to economize (Pine and Gilmore, 1999) is getting more important. At home, people pay less than 20 eurocents on a cup of coffee, but, for an extra experience, people are willing to pay up to 25 times more. At the St. Mark’s Square in Venice, a cup of coffee costing „ve euros is not unusual. The example shows the importance of additional experiences, which can be applied readily in the current airline industry. Recently, considerable knowledge has become available in the „eld of product experience (Schifferstein and Hekkert, 2008). One clear fact is that listening to the voice of the customer is critical. The customer’s voice is the central theme of this chapter. This voice may be another point of view from the normal, but it does reveal what passengers experience, and the airline industry can use it as a source of inspiration. The experience of passengers has changed over the past decade. Nowadays, travelling consumes a signi„cant amount of our time, and, with increasing frequency, the passenger of today is being presented with new developments regarding Internet check-in, lounges, new seats, in-™ight entertainment (IFE), meals, ™at beds, lighting, and other interior changes. The question is whether these new innovations are noticed by passengers and what do passengers like or prefer.
