At the World Aviation Festival 2025, Emirates Skywards’ Nejib Ben Khedher highlighted the programme’s shift back to its core mission of strengthening loyalty to the Emirates brand, prioritising emotional engagement and premium member value over pure commercialisation. Building on 25 years of Skywards’ history, the programme now looks ahead to leverage AI, hyper-personalisation, and lifestyle experiences to create deeper, lasting connections with its members.
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EmiratesKey Takeaways:
- Loyalty must balance commercialisation and emotional engagement.
- Skywards is anchored to Emirates, not an independent profit centre.
- Premium members drive disproportionate revenue and are prioritised.
- Experiences and lifestyle rewards fuel emotional loyalty.
- AI and hyper-personalisation will define the next era of loyalty.
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Today at the World Aviation Festival 2025, Nejib Ben-Khedher, Divisional Senior Vice President of Skywards at Emirates, shared candid insights on the evolution of airline loyalty, the balancing act between commercialisation and emotional engagement, and the future direction of one of the world’s leading airline loyalty programmes.
From Profit Centre to Brand Anchor
Over the past decade, loyalty programmes worldwide have increasingly been monetised into standalone profit centres, often becoming more valuable than their parent airlines. Emirates Skywards explored this path, experimenting with partnerships and revenue diversification. But Ben Khedher emphasised that Skywards remains deeply anchored to Emirates itself.
“Profit is not what’s driving us,” he explained. “Our core strength is the airline brand. The programme exists to enhance that relationship, not compete with it.”
Today, 50% of miles are earned through flights and 85% are redeemed for travel rewards. This alignment ensures Skywards continues to serve as a growth engine for Emirates rather than a detached financial product.
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Image: GLO
Trade-Offs: Restricting Access to Protect Value
Ben Khedher acknowledged that Skywards scaled back certain aspects of commercialisation to protect the integrity of elite status and customer trust. For example, restrictions were introduced around First Class reward access and conversion pricing, ensuring the most engaged, high-value members retain priority benefits.
Premium members, though representing just 12% of Skywards membership, contribute nearly 25% of Emirates’ revenue. Their average spend is 60% higher than other members. Protecting this segment, while democratising broader earn-and-burn opportunities, has been central to Skywards’ rebalancing strategy.
Emotional Loyalty Beyond Miles
While commercial partnerships remain important, Emirates has doubled down on emotional loyalty. Skywards aims to build lasting connections with members by offering access to exclusive experiences and lifestyle privileges, particularly in Dubai.
The “Skywards Exclusives” platform has become a popular channel for members to redeem miles for concerts, cultural events, and sports, creating memories that go beyond flights. “Emotional loyalty is what stays,” Ben Khedher noted. “It’s what builds true engagement with our members.”
Hyper-Personalisation Powered by AI
Looking ahead, Emirates is investing heavily in AI-driven personalisation. Ben Khedher highlighted that Skywards is already piloting hyper-personalisation use cases across campaigns, communications, and product offers.
With access to one of the world’s richest customer data ecosystems, Emirates aims to move beyond broad segmentation to individualised experiences — whether in flight offers, elite status recognition, or partner engagements.
“The loyalty programme of the future won’t just be about points and tiers,” he said. “It will be about a continuous, personalised journey enabled by technology.”
Partnerships: Quality Over Quantity
Skywards has historically built one of the most extensive networks of credit card, retail, and commercial partners. While these relationships drove substantial revenue, the current focus is on partners that overlap meaningfully with customer engagement, ensuring value creation aligns with loyalty, not just short-term financial returns.
25 Years On: A Vision Forward
As Emirates Skywards celebrates its 25th anniversary, the strategy is clear:
- Stay firmly tied to the Emirates brand.
- Protect and elevate premium members.
- Balance financial growth with authentic loyalty.
- Harness AI and data to enable hyper-personalised engagement.
- Expand beyond miles into lifestyle experiences that foster emotional connection.
Dr. Nejib Ben Khedher closed with a reminder that while technology will transform loyalty, its foundation remains unchanged: trust, value, and emotional connection with the customer.
Source: GLO
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