Riyadh Air’s Digital Strategy: More Amazon and Uber, Less Legacy Airline

Riyadh Air CEO Tony Douglas called it his “Steve Jobs moment” as the Saudi airline unveiled its list of planned digital features.

The idea is to make Riyadh Air have “more in common with Amazon, noon.com [a Middle Eastern online retailer] and Uber” than other airlines, Douglas said Wednesday on stage at the Future Investment Initiative conference (FII) in Riyadh.

The Riyadh Air app will include a “shopping basket” to add flight tickets, attraction tickets, rental cars, and other travel-related bookings. Riyadh Air is partnering with FLYR for its “digital-native” suite of features.

Other plans include:

• Users will be able to create group bookings through Riyadh Air, allowing users to add their own experiences collectively to one booking, similar to Airbnb’s shared link system.
• Groups will be able to add their bookings even if they are not from Riyadh Air. The carrier has a growing list of partners including Delta Air Lines and Singapore Airlines.
• The entire trip can be booked “from one place,” meaning hotels, cars and experiences.

Douglas said one of the biggest reasons for its digital-first approach is so it can take business from the established OTAs.

“Look at Booking.com, it’s got a market capitalization of $150 billion. Expedia and Trip are right up there. The biggest airline in the world has a market capitalization of $32 billion. We [airlines] do all the hard work, we’ve got the balance sheet with aircraft that depreciate, so he or she who controls digital, controls where the value at.”

“The travel integrator with the airline, not one or the other, is what Riyadh Air is trying to become. Here lies the Steve Jobs moment. It’s a pathway to the future.”

While Douglas never used the words “super app,” that model is in essence what Riyadh Air is going for. Malaysia’s AirAsia has its own super app called Move. Like Riyadh Air, Move allows users to book with other airlines through the app, and facilitates hotel books as well.

Move is looking to collaborate with other OTAs that have more expertise in hotels.

Saudi Arabia’s Big Bet

Riyadh Air is wholly owned by Saudi’s Public Investment Fund, and forms part of an ambitious project to boost tourism to the country. The carrier has yet to start taking in revenue, with its first flights due in 2025. 

The airline announced a large aircraft order at FII. Throughout the Davos-style event, tourism leaders have been talking about Riyadh Air as a key piece of the puzzle in connecting Saudi to the world.

Douglas added: “Our purpose statement is to be a digitally-led business that enables travel, not to be confused with a conventional airline.”

“We don’t have a legacy, we don’t have to use systems that have been around for many decades. We have the opportunity. Do we want to be the last big start-up to do it the conventional way? Or the first to be a true digital native. The correct answer is B.”