Flyadeal looks at GDS connection to support international growth

Jeddah-based Flyadeal launched seven years ago as a digital-only airline selling tickets via its website, though it has since also connected into online travel agents via direct connect channels.

Speaking on the sidelines of the IATA Aviation Day Middle East North Africa event in Jeddah, Flyadeal chief commercial officer Rogier Van Enk said the carrier is looking at working much more with aggregators, including the traditional GDSs. “We have active conversations now with the GDSs to see whether we want to be on their platform,” he said.

Van Enk says one of the reasons behind the move is to help power its international growth. Flyadeal is expanding rapidly and has plans to triple its 38-strong Airbus A320 fleet to more than 100 aircraft by 2030, including delivery of its first A321neos next year. Having built its presence in the Saudi domestic market, much of this growth will be on international routes.

“Our brand awareness in the Kingdom [of Saudi Arabia] is 95%-plus, so people know who we are. But when you go [international] not everyone knows us. So, you want to be on the shelf,” says van Enk.

The move also aims to help Flyadeal further tap into corporate travellers.

 “We see a lot of corporates already on our flights. But we want to make it easier for corporates to find us, particularly those where employees must book through a travel agency of the company,” he says.  “If we are not on those shelves, then we are going to be missing out on that demand.”

Van Enk joined Flyadeal earlier this year from Finnair, having previously headed up distribution for both the Finnish carrier and British Airways, and he points to a higher dependency on travel agents in the Middle East region.

“Trade are very important partners of airlines in the region,” he says. Flyadeal’s engagement with the travel trade has been further enabled by its recent membership of IATA and payment processing through the association’s Billing Settlement Plan.

“We have a strategy where we try to get the customer in, and once they are flying us, we are laser-focused on keeping them within our ecosystem,” he adds. “But we have a multi-channel distribution strategy. [And] we are going to do it in an LCC way.”

Van Enk says the airline will not “reinvent the wheel” and will look at existing examples where LCCs connect to a GDS. “We will probably find our own version of that,” he says.  “The main goal here is to get the lowest fares to our customers. But we also want to be on the shelves where customers can find us.”