Understanding Passenger Satisfaction: Topic Modeling of Online Reviews
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47608/jki.v19i12025.67-80Keywords:
Customer satisfaction, text mining, Indonesia airlinesAbstract
This study examined customer satisfaction with three airlines— Garuda Indonesia, Batik Air, and Citilink—by analyzing Skytrax customer reviews. Topic modeling based on latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) was used to categorize 1174 customer reviews from 2024 as having either positive or negative sentiment. The statistical analysis revealed that Garuda Indonesia received the most recommendations, followed by Citilink and Batik Air. Positive review themes included good service and friendly staff, whereas negative sentiment was frequently attributed to delays and poor seat comfort. By identifying these key satisfaction drivers and pain points, this study offers actionable insights for airline service improvement and customer retention strategies. These findings contribute to the growing application of text mining in consumer behavior research and provide practical guidance for airline managers aiming to optimize competitiveness in the aviation industry.
Downloads
References
Blei, D. M., Ng, A. Y., & Jordan, M. I. (2003). Latent dirichlet allocation. Journal of machine Learning research, 3(Jan), 993-1022.
Bunchongchit, K., & Wattanacharoensil, W. (2021). Data analytics of Skytrax’s airport review and ratings: Views of airport quality by passengers types. Research in Transportation Business and Management, 41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2021.100688
Farzadnia, S., Vanani, I. R., & Hanafizadeh, P. (2024). An experimental study for identifying customer prominent viewpoints on different flight classes by topic modeling methods. International Journal of Information Management Data Insights, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jjimei.2024.100223
Guo, Y., Barnes, S. J., & Jia, Q. (2017). Mining meaning from online ratings and reviews: Tourist satisfaction analysis using latent dirichlet allocation. Tourism Management, 59, 467–483. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2016.09.009
Hu, Y. H., Chen, Y. L., & Chou, H. L. (2017). Opinion mining from online hotel reviews – A text summarization approach. Information Processing and Management, 53(2), 436–449. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2016.12.002
Hussain, R., al Nasser, A., & Hussain, Y. K. (2015). Service quality and customer satisfaction of a UAE-based airline: An empirical investigation. Journal of Air Transport Management, 42, 167–175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2014.10.001
Kim, D., Lim, C., & Ha, H. K. (2024). Comparative analysis of changes in passenger’s perception for airline companies’ service quality before and during COVID-19 using topic modeling. Journal of Air Transport Management, 115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2024.102542
Kos Koklic, M., Kukar-Kinney, M., & Vegelj, S. (2017). An investigation of customer satisfaction with low-cost and full-service airline companies. Journal of Business Research, 80, 188–196. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.05.015
Lucini, F. R., Tonetto, L. M., Fogliatto, F. S., & Anzanello, M. J. (2020). Text mining approach to explore dimensions of airline customer satisfaction using online customer reviews. Journal of Air Transport Management, 83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2019.101760
Murugesan, R., A P, R., N, N., & Balanathan, R. (2024). Forecasting airline passengers’ satisfaction based on sentiments and ratings: An application of VADER and machine learning techniques. Journal of Air Transport Management, 120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2024.102668
Noviantoro, T., & Huang, J. P. (2022). Investigating airline passenger satisfaction: Data mining method. Research in Transportation Business and Management, 43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2021.100726
Paraschi, E. P., & Panagopoulos, A. (2024). COVID-19 crisis management in Greek airlines. Journal of the Air Transport Research Society, 100032. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jatrs.2024.100032
Park, S., June, K., & Yu, J. (2023). Analysis of parenting informational needs for mothers with infants and toddlers using text-mining. Children and Youth Services Review, 145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2022.106768
Park, S., & Nicolau, J. L. (2015). Asymmetric effects of online consumer reviews. Annals of Tourism Research, 50, 67–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2014.10.007
Patel, A., Oza, P., & Agrawal, S. (2022). Sentiment Analysis of Customer Feedback and Reviews for Airline Services using Language Representation Model. Procedia Computer Science, 218, 2459–2467. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2023.01.221
Pereira, F., Costa, J. M., Ramos, R., & Raimundo, A. (2023). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on airlines’ passenger satisfaction. Journal of Air Transport Management, 112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2023.102441
Rita, P., Moro, S., & Cavalcanti, G. (2022). The impact of COVID-19 on tourism: Analysis of online reviews in the airlines sector. Journal of Air Transport Management, 104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2022.102277
Sezgen, E., Mason, K. J., & Mayer, R. (2019). Voice of airline passenger: A text mining approach to understand customer satisfaction. Journal of Air Transport Management, 77, 65–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2019.04.001
Silge, J., Robinson, D., & Robinson, D. (2017). Text mining with R: A tidy approach (p. 194). Boston (MA): O'reilly.
Sun, X., Zheng, C., Wandelt, S., & Zhang, A. (2024). Airline competition: A comprehensive review of recent research. Journal of the Air Transport Research Society, 2, 100013. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jatrs.2024.100013
Syed, A. A., Gaol, F. L., Boediman, A., & Budiharto, W. (2024). Airline reviews processing: Abstractive summarization and rating-based sentiment classification using deep transfer learning. International Journal of Information Management Data Insights, 4(2), 100238. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jjimei.2024.100238
Tahanisaz, S. & Shokuhyar, S. (2020). Evaluation of passenger satisfaction with service quality: A consecutive method applied to the airline industry. Journal of Air Transport Management, 83, 101764
Xu, X., & Li, Y. (2016). The antecedents of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction toward various types of hotels: A text mining approach. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 55, 57–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2016.03.003
Xu, X., Wang, X., Li, Y., & Haghighi, M. (2017). Business intelligence in online customer textual reviews: Understanding consumer perceptions and influential factors. International Journal of Information Management, 37(6), 673–683. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2017.06.004
Zahraee, S. M., Shiwakoti, N., Jiang, H., Qi, Z., He, Y., Guo, T., & Li, Y. (2023). A study on airlines’ responses and customer satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology, 12(4), 1017–1037. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijtst.2022.11.004

Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Faridatus Saidah, MSM., Yuliani Dwi Lestari, PhD.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.