Change of Users' Behavioral Intention after Repeated Aviation Accidents: A Potential Problem for Long-Term Safety

摘要

Customers have various criteria for selecting which airline to use but these criteria changes when accidents occur frequently for a single airline. Accidents of Taiwan-based TransAsia Airways were selected for this case study. After the accident of TransAsia Airways flight GE222 on July 23, 2014, subjective data from Taiwanese citizens were collected throughan online survey. While sending out the questionnaires, another accident occurred with the same airline on February 4, 2015 (GE235). This unique data allowed us to analyze influences on the change in public attitude toward airlines for two different respondent groups. A structural equation model was built to express the two groups’ behavioral intention, and multi-group analysis showed that there were differences between the two groups: perception in safety contributes less to behavioral intention after repeated accidents because people lose faith in the safety management of the airline and tend to value reputation when selecting the airline. The results also indicated that people were unaware about aviation safety and this is a potentialproblem which induces airlines to not conduct safety measures.