Abstract The airline industry is a complex business where the airport, airline companies, and ground staff need to work closely to provide effective services during airline delays. Passenger wait time has been identified as an important factor of passenger dissatisfaction in the airline industry. Airline delay is considered a service failure, even if it is unavoidable. Airlines needed better strategies to recover from service failures, thus turning angry, frustrated passengers into loyal customers. The purpose of this study is to investigate airline passengers’ perception of service recovery during flight delay by adopting the dimensions of distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice.