As Riyadh Air prepares for launch later this year, the airline is unveiling more of its strategy and design. This week, the airline revealed the PriestmanGoode cabin designs for its inaugural Boeing 787-9 fleet, showcasing the airline’s innovative, detail-oriented approach to brining a sense of Riyadh into the air. Leveraging the freedom that comes with building a new airline from scratch, Riyadh Air is paving its own way forward, putting a customer-centric philosophy above all.
This approach was clear in a brief conversation with the airline’s VP Loyalty & Sustainability, Kim Hardaker at Aviation Festival Asia earlier this year. Hardaker discussed the airline’s loyalty strategy, focusing on digital enablement, proactive engagement, and an acute understand of the evolving needs of passengers.
“I think of the good phrase, ‘share of life not just share of wallet’ which I think is a natural progression, because consumers engage with so many different brands in a single day. We can’t just wait for them to be a passenger for us to be able to show them how valuable they are to us, and also for them to extract value.”
As Hardaker explained, Riyadh Air is intent of building meaningful relationships with passengers, anchored in every day life and a sense of local culture. Speaking on the partnerships that the airline will open with, Hardaker re-emphasised the importance of incorporating the unique culture of the Kingdom and beyond into its value proposition:
“Being born in Riyadh, it’s incredibly important that we are designing something and creating relationships with our local partners and for our local audience. But naturally, we’re an international carrier, right? And already in the headlines, we have announced incredible partnerships with Singapore Airlines, with Delta as an example. So over time, as we expand and are able to really find what partners resonate with our international audiences as well, how we can actually build out that ecosystem – to my previous point of being a ‘share of life’ is incredibly important.”
To learn more about loyalty at Riyadh Air as well as the airline’s sustainability focus, watch the full conversation below.
Questions asked include:
- The industry’s loyalty landscape is undergoing a significant shift and increasingly people are hesitant to tie themselves to just one airline. How would you characterise the current state of loyalty?
- How is Riyadh Air, as a new airline, positioning itself to work with this evolution?
- I understand that initially partnerships in the loyalty space will be predominantly based around the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. But in the future, how do you envision Riyadh Air expanding its loyalty ecosystem beyond the Kingdom?
- It has been widely advertised that Riyadh Air is deeply committed to sustainability. Can you highlight some of the major steps you are taking to minimise the airline’s carbon footprint?
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