<![CDATA[Customer loyalty is a critical factor for sea transportation service companies in retaining customers amid increasingly intense competition. This study aims to analyze the effect of staff helpfulness and communication on customer loyalty through passenger satisfaction at PT. Dharma Lautan Utama, Perak Branch, Surabaya (KM. Dharma Kencana VII). A quantitative approach was employed with a sample of 384 respondents determined using the Lemeshow formula and selected through purposive sampling. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with the assistance of SmartPLS 4. The results show that communication has a significant effect on passenger satisfaction (t = 10.668; p = 0.000), but has an insignificant direct effect on customer loyalty (t = 0.619; p = 0.268). Staff helpfulness has a significant effect on both passenger satisfaction (t = 2.310; p = 0.010) and customer loyalty (t = 3.059; p = 0.001). Passenger satisfaction is also shown to significantly affect customer loyalty (t = 15.275; p = 0.000) and mediates the effect of staff helpfulness (t = 2.444; p = 0.007) and communication (t = 7.489; p = 0.000) on customer loyalty. These findings confirm that passenger satisfaction serves as an important pathway linking the quality of staff interaction with the formation of customer loyalty in sea transportation services.]]>
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