Designing the airport service with fuzzy QFD based on SERVQUAL integrated with a fuzzy multi-objective decision model

Airport service quality is a crucial issue in the transportation industry. Although many studies focus on service quality and measurement of the airports, only a small number of studies that consider linguistic expression and fuzzy approach exist in the literature. This study aims to propose a new integrated approach to develop airport service quality. An integrated approach involving fuzzy Quality Function Deployment (QFD) based on SERVQUAL is used to measure airport service quality and to determine fuzzy weights of technical design requirements. Firstly, passengers’ needs are prioritised by using the SERVQUAL method and gap scores, then QFD matrix is constructed by defining fuzzy relationships between passengers’ needs and expectations, and technical design requirements under imprecise knowledge. Technical design requirements are weighted by using fuzzy QFD matrix as fuzzy numbers. Finally, a fuzzy multiple objective decision model is proposed to select the significant technical design requirements with two objectives: maximising the total fuzzy weights of technical design requirements and minimising the fuzzy technical difficulty level under a fuzzy budget constraint. A two-phase approach is used to solve the constructed fuzzy multi-objective decision model. The final results indicate four design requirements named as ‘the number of information board’, ‘capacity of wi-fi’, ‘emergency help button and automation’, and ‘the number of the signboard’, which maximise the total fuzzy weights of technical design requirements and minimise the sum of the fuzzy technical difficulty of each design requirements under the fuzzy budget constraint. This study is a real-world application which was implemented at the Anadolu University Airport in Turkey.