Flight irregularities impact on customer experience and loyalty

Summer is almost here, and students and workers are looking forward to their vacations. Many are planning summer trips and booking flights. With recent flight delays and cancellations (Yle 2025; Finnair 2025), a traveler cannot be confident to reach the destination on time. During spring 2025 in my Introduction to Air Transport Management course we had a flight cancellation case study, and a brainstorming session how flight disruptions effect on customer journey. In the article, I delve deeper into how flight irregularities impact overall customer experience and loyalty.

Flight disruptions during spring 2025

Airlines are forced to delay and cancel flights due to extreme weather conditions, technical issues, and strikes. This spring 2025 in Finland, one of the major reasons for flight cancellations has been industrial actions and strikes by the Finnish Transport Workers’ Union (cabin crew), the Finnish Airline Pilots’ Association (pilots), and the Finnish Aviation Union (ground handling personnel). These strikes, driven by disputes over wage increases and working conditions, have caused significant flight disruptions.

According to EU regulations, specifically EU Regulation 261/2004, passengers have the right to get a full-refund or be re-routed on alternative flights if their flights are significantly delayed or cancelled. Most passengers choose the re-routing option as they want to arrive to the destination as soon as possible.

Customer experience in flight irregularities

Flight delays and cancellations not only affect airlines’ profitability but also negatively impact passengers travelling plans, itineraries and customer experience (Song et al. 2024). Over the past decade, airlines have rapidly invested in automation and digitalisation. As a result, customers now receive prompt notifications about flight delays and cancellations.

Passengers are also provided with re-routing options, often automatically selected by the operating carrier. The re-routing solution offered depends on various factors, such as travel class, frequent flyer status, connecting flights, whether the customer is traveling with small children or infants, or if the passenger has certain disabilities (e.g., uses a wheelchair).

Song & al. (2024) address that according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China’s (CAAC) consumer complaint notifications for 2022, flight delays are among the most concerning issues for passengers adversely impacting both the airline’s reputation and customer satisfaction.

To enhance customer experience and service quality, airlines can provide multiple re-routing options, allowing customers to participate in decision-making. This involvement positively influences their experience. Studies (Dong & Sivakumar 2017) have shown that when customers actively participate in decision making process, such as selecting re-routing options during flight cancellations, they feel more in control and less frustrated about disruption situation. Additionally, this engagement makes customers feel valued and heard, leading to higher satisfaction and loyalty.

Relationship stages between a customer and an airline

Service failures and disruptions are practically unavoidable. Bejou and Palmer (1998; 2016) have examined the impact of service disruptions on customer perceptions, particularly regarding the relationship between a customer and an airline and loyalty. In the long term, loyal and committed customers may view service failures, such as flight delays and cancellations, as minor inconveniences that do not significantly undermine the relationship. Airlines still need to apologise and show empathy towards customers.

For customers in the early stages of a customer relationship, they may be more forgiving of the company and view a service failure as a one-time event. They may still choose to fly a second time. But the most difficult part of the relationship occurs in the medium term. A customer who experiences a failure once may be forgiving, but if it happens a second time, they may not return. This is because they haven’t yet developed the broad-based relationship, trust, and commitment that longer-term customers have.

Finally, there is some good news for airlines and their loyal customers. Interestingly, Bejou and Palmer (1998; 2016) add that when a service provider effectively resolves a problem, customer satisfaction can often be higher than if the negative incident had never occurred.

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