Saudi Arabia’s aviation sector is rapidly scaling under Vision 2030, but as Jason Willicombe, Director of Aviation Solutions, MENA at Endava, explains, true differentiation will come not just from fleet and service, but from rethinking payments as a strategic lever to enhance customer experience, drive conversion and unlock new revenue streams
In just a few short years, Saudi Arabia has made its ambitions for aviation unmistakably clear. The Kingdom is positioning its airline sector as a serious global contender. Under Vision 2030, aviation has become a strategic pillar of national growth, with plans to triple passenger numbers and attract 150 million tourists annually by the end of the decade.
This ambition is already translating into tangible momentum. Riyadh Air, launched in 2023, has placed one of the industry’s most eye-catching aircraft orders, committing to a fleet of next-generation wide-body aircraft designed to support long-haul connectivity across Europe, Asia and North America. At the same time, established carriers continue to scale at pace. Saudia alone transported 35 million guests in 2024, reflecting double-digit year-on-year growth, while low-cost carriers such as flynas, on the back of an IPO that was oversubscribed by nearly 350%, are accelerating their growth.
Taken together, these developments point to a fast-maturing aviation ecosystem that is moving rapidly from regional relevance to global competition.
Saudi airlines are rightly investing in the fundamentals of competitive aviation. Fleet modernisation, expanded route networks and premium onboard experiences are central to their strategies, especially as they compete with well-established regional leaders such as Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways. Operational excellence is also becoming a clear focus, with punctuality, reliability and service consistency increasingly treated as brand differentiators rather than hygiene factors.
Yet for all their importance, these investments still place airlines in a crowded arena where competitors are often making similar moves at similar speed. New aircraft and premium cabins raise expectations across the board, but they rarely provide lasting differentiation on their own.
This is where Saudi Arabia’s demographic and traveller profile presents an opportunity. The Kingdom has one of the youngest, most digitally fluent populations in the region, with high smartphone penetration and strong adoption of digital financial services. Layered on top is a growing influx of international travellers who expect seamless, intuitive journeys that mirror the experiences they receive from leading retailers, banks and digital platforms.
For these customers, the travel experience does not begin at boarding. It begins at booking. And increasingly, the way passengers pay is part of how they judge an airline.
Modern travellers value speed, flexibility and choice at every touchpoint. They expect airlines to support local and global payment methods, allow payments to be split across cards, wallets and loyalty points and offer alternatives such as buy-now-pay-later. In Saudi Arabia and the wider region, BNPL leaders like Tamara and Tabby have helped normalise this behaviour, particularly among younger, digitally savvy consumers who value control over how and when they pay.
Payments, the new engine for differentiation
In this context, payments move from being a back-office necessity to a front-line competitive lever. A differentiated payments strategy allows airlines to align the purchase experience with rising expectations around convenience, personalisation and financial flexibility.
Today’s passenger is rarely purchasing a flight in isolation. They are assembling an end-to-end journey that may include seat upgrades, baggage, lounge access, hotels, transfers and experiences. They are loyal to programmes that reward them meaningfully, proud of their status tiers and increasingly comfortable managing multiple financial relationships across banks, wallets and platforms.
Supporting this behaviour requires more than simply adding payment methods. It demands an approach that reduces friction at the point of sale, minimises checkout abandonment and maximises conversion. Intelligent retry mechanisms can recover failed transactions. Smart routing can direct payments to the provider most likely to approve them in a given market. Unified controls make it possible to apply loyalty benefits, promotions and partnerships consistently across channels, all while maintaining compliance with local and international regulations.
Beyond optimisation, payments also enable innovation. Airlines experimenting with prepaid subscriptions, tiered memberships or early-access programmes for frequent flyers depend on a payments foundation capable of handling recurring billing, complex entitlements and seamless integration with loyalty platforms. When executed well, these models strengthen customer relationships, unlock new revenue streams and help airlines evolve from transport providers into lifestyle brands.
From infrastructure to advantage
Achieving this level of differentiation requires a strategic approach to payments, not a patchwork of disconnected tools. The multi-leg itineraries, multi-currency pricing, dynamic inventory, loyalty redemption and more that are unique complexities of airline commerce mean that off-the-shelf payment solutions often fall short. They lack the flexibility to align payment logic with the dynamic nature of airline retail and customer expectations.
For carriers seeking long-term control and scalability, a custom-built payment orchestration layer offers a compelling alternative. By centralising payment logic across channels and geographies, orchestration reduces reliance on legacy systems and gives commercial teams the freedom to innovate without re-engineering core platforms.
At its heart, orchestration acts as a single control point, connecting multiple payment service providers, wallets, fraud tools and value-added services. This simplifies operations for IT teams while accelerating time to market for new payment options and customer propositions.
In practice, enabling in-house payment orchestration begins with establishing a dedicated payment platform that operates independently from legacy reservation systems. Instead of involving multiple systems in each transaction, all payment decisioning is centralised, reducing PCI scope and simplifying compliance. From there, airlines can onboard the right mix of payment methods and services, optimising for cost, acceptance rates and customer preference as they expand into new markets.
Turning transactions into tailwinds for growth
As competition intensifies, Saudi airlines have an opportunity to differentiate in ways that go beyond aircraft and amenities. By elevating payments from a transactional afterthought to a core part of the customer experience, they can simplify complexity, scale efficiently, tailor journeys across channels and geographies and optimise both cost and conversion.
To unlock this potential, airlines must look beyond commodity payment solutions and adopt an orchestration-led approach that aligns payments with broader retail and distribution ambitions. With the right technology partner that understands both the operational realities of aviation and the rapid evolution of payments, Saudi carriers can transform a traditionally overlooked function into a powerful engine for growth, differentiation and customer loyalty.
