Investigating consumer unforgiveness and airlines avoidance

When service failure occurs in the airline industry, passengers experience more than negative emotions when they do not forgive the offending airlines. Unforgiveness does exist and it can lead to passengers distancing themselves from and avoiding the offending airlines. The current study examines unforgiveness in more depth considering its multi-dimensionalities, and its role in passengers’ airline avoidance behaviour after service failure. An online survey was conducted with 403 respondents in several major cities in Indonesia, the fourth most populated country in the world. Structural Equation Modelling was employed, and the results highlight the significant mediating role of unforgiveness in the relationships between the key factors (i.e., service recovery and stability attribution) and the decision to avoid an airline and consumer trust of the airline. Other two important determinants including trust and alternative airline attractiveness were also shown to influence airline avoidance.