Saudia'a new center to train senior staff

SAUDI Arabian Airlines has established a ‘Leadership Development Center’ whereby senior management professionals in the organization will benefit from executive programs from world-class institutions, which will be delivered both in the Kingdom and abroad.

Saudia Tuesday, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with globally-renowned learning institutions to provide advanced executive programs for the airline’s senior management team. The programs will cover a wide range of topics, which include, but are not limited to: leadership, technical, managerial and interpersonal skills development.

The learning organizations currently offer educational programs across the world, and with the new cooperation, Saudia executive employees will have access to a broad range of advanced education programs.

The signing ceremony took place at the airline’s headquarters in Jeddah at its state-of-the-art inflight services training academy, and included the Host of the event, the Director General of Saudi Arabian Airlines, Eng. Saleh Bin Nasser Al-Jasser, deans and special advisors from the organizations, as well as executive-level employees from the airline.

Al-Jasser spoke about the future direction of the airline and pursuit of excellence in all aspects — including career and leadership development for its leaders and high-performers.

Al-Jasser said: “Today marks a historic occasion for the future of the airline. We are ever-aware that the global business climate is changing at a rapid pace, and our leaders must be equipped for the horizons ahead, especially as we are in the midst of a Transformation Plan that is enhancing all aspects of the organization.

“This is why we firmly believe in skills and knowledge development for our talented employees, and providing them with the business acumen to propel Saudia forward, aligning the airline with the outcomes we are focused on for the Vision 2030.”

Directly following the ceremony, representatives from the academic organizations met with the airline’s team members afterwards to discuss the programs on offer. The airline carried more than 32 million passengers in 2017 and is set to grow its fleet to more than 200 aircraft by the end of 2020. Saudia currently flies to 90 destinations across four continents with a fleet of 147 narrow and widebody aircraft.

At the 2017 Paris Air Show at Le Bourget, Saudia was named ‘World’s Most Improved Airline 2017’ by Skytrax — the international air transport rating organization.