Elevating Passenger Experience

Redesigning a Saudi Airport Experience 

2023

Client

Regional Airport Authority

Context:

The client aimed to transform a key regional airport into a world-class gateway that reflects the country’s growing tourism ambitions. Beyond improving operations, the vision was to create an airport experience that delivers a lasting first and final impression, seamlessly connecting travelers to the destination’s cultural identity and hospitality standards.

The Challenge

The airport faced challenges typical of fast-growing travel destinations:

  • Long queues and congestion during peak arrival and departure times.

  • Limited integration between physical design and operational flow.

  • Missed opportunities to immerse travelers in a sense of place and welcome.


The goal was to redesign the end-to-end passenger journey to be efficient, welcoming, and distinctive—turning the airport into a meaningful part of the destination experience.

Objective

To develop a comprehensive Customer Experience (CX) Strategy that defines the future-state passenger journey, optimizes operations, and ensures service excellence through measurable standards, innovative concepts, and a clear roadmap for transformation.

My Role

As part of the core experience design team, I contributed across the full CX design lifecycle:

  • Conducted qualitative and quantitative research through site visits, passenger interviews and operational reviews.

  • Supported the development of passenger personas, journey maps and experience blueprints for both arrival and departure journeys.

  • Identified opportunity areas and quick wins to improve flow and engagement at key touchpoints.

  • Helped design the CX roadmap, KPIs and measurement framework to guide implementation and continuous improvement.

Impact

Delivered a future-state service blueprint emphasizing efficiency, hospitality, and cultural immersion.

Defined clear CX standards, KPIs and SLAs to drive operational excellence.

Enabled the client to position the airport as a benchmark for modern travel experience and tourism readiness.

Reflection

This project deepened my understanding of how operational design and human experience intersect in complex environments. It reinforced the importance of balancing functionality with emotional engagement, creating journeys that are not just smooth, but memorable.