At World Aviation Festival, Rogier Van Enk, SVP Customer Engagement at Finnair mapped out the changing loyalty and retail landscapes, breaking them into challenges, passenger expectations, and the role of technology in this evolution. 

After identifying internal resistance and outdated processes as the greatest challenges, Van Enk explored multiple opportunities in retail transformation including revenue growth, customer experience, and efficiency gains.

Speaking on loyalty, Van Enk predicted a shift from traditional frequent flyer programmes towards loyalty ecosystems explaining:

”I think what we’re seeing is a transformation from frequent flyer programmes to loyalty programmes […] There is a sustainability angle to this – I think airlines are focused on making money outside of flying much more and the loyalty programmes is a very exciting place to generate cash without flying. Airline co-brand cards are a good example of that. I think there will be a huge amount of energy put into changing loyalty programmes and changing from frequent flyer to general loyalty programmes and we are seeing some of that happen already…” 

Watch the full interview below to learn about the variation Van Enk observes in both generational and geographic trends.

Questions asked include:

  1. How will the retail landscape of the future differ from today, and what are the greatest challenges we must overcome to get there?​
  2. With airline loyalty changing shape as the world evolves, how are you keeping pace with passenger expectations?​
  3. As we look to 2025, what are your strategic priorities for the coming year?

 

 

For more from onsite at World Aviation Festival see: