Saudia, the national flag carrier of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and one of the oldest airlines in the Middle East, is reshaping its marketing operations around commercial outcomes, backed by AI.
The approach brings data, media, creative and technology into a single system to respond more quickly to changes in traveller behaviour and demand.
The airline reported double-digit global revenue growth and a double-digit reduction in cost of sale in the first half of 2026 compared with H1 2025, alongside an improvement in return on ad spend. Incubeta MENA, the marketing outcomes agency, helped the airline build and run its integrated system that answers to commercial priorities.
Arved von zur Muehlen
Arved von zur Muehlen, EVP and Chief Commercial Officer at Saudia, said: “The conversation around AI can very quickly become about the technology itself, but from a commercial perspective, the more important question is what you are asking that technology to achieve.”
He added that Saudia’s approach started with defining what a valuable business outcome looks like and then building the marketing system around it. This, he said, shifts marketing from delivering activity towards responding to demand and measuring commercial value.
The model uses live audience and behavioural signals across search, dynamic creative and automated workflows. Generative AI is also used in the creative process to assemble messaging for different audiences and moments.
Saudia’s model currently covers 50 booking behaviours and more than 200 micro-personas, with more than 2,000 creative variations running from a single dynamic creative library.
This is intended to allow customer and demand signals to influence creative execution and media decisions as travel preferences change.
Katerina Bazalova
Katerina Bazalova, Managing Director, Incubeta MENA, said the model reflects a shift towards greater accountability for business outcomes from marketing partners.
“There is a lot of focus on what AI allows marketers to produce, but volume alone is not the opportunity. Our clients do not buy activity from us. They buy an outcome: revenue, marketing maturity and growth they can measure,” Bazalova said.
AI-driven travel journeys
The next stage of the model is expected to use agentic technology to automate more marketing decisions as AI becomes more involved in travel discovery and booking.
Saudia’s agentic roadmap includes performance marketing agents covering signals, spend, creative and offers, coordinated through a single intelligence layer. The airline also plans to retain ownership of its models and underlying logic.