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From Carrier to Civilizational Connector: Designing the Civilizational Airline as a KPI-Governed Model for Cultural Diplomacy, Route Strategy, and Public Value
Airlines are usually assessed through operational, financial, safety and customer-experience indicators such as load factor, yield, CASK, RASK, on-time performance, completion factor, ancillary revenue and passenger satisfaction. These metrics remain indispensable, but they do not fully capture the wider role of strategically positioned airlines as connectors of cultures, diasporas, destinations, trade corridors, pilgrimage flows, education mobility, health tourism and national image. This article develops the concept of the Civilizational Airline: an airline that functions not only as a commercial carrier but also as a civilizational connector governed through disciplined route strategy, cultural diplomacy, public value and accountable performance management. Methodologically, the study adopts a design-science research logic supported by an integrative literature review and selective use of prior author-developed KPI-governance frameworks as design precedents rather than empirical proof. The resulting artifact, the Civilizational Airline 360 Framework, comprises seven interdependent domains: cultural experience architecture, civilizational route-network strategy, airport-gateway experience, brand and soft-power language, diaspora and trust capital, digital-data intelligence, and sustainability-accountability. The article contributes to airline strategy, aviation management, tourism policy, public diplomacy and performance governance by showing how civilizational value can be translated into auditable KPIs without replacing safety, profitability or operational discipline. The central proposition is that future airline competitiveness will increasingly depend not only on aircraft, slots and route expansion, but also on trusted connectivity, cultural intelligence, digital integration, environmental legitimacy and measurable contribution to public value.
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