Royal Jordanian soars to new heights

PROFILE

One of the leading Jordanian companies, Royal Jordanian was established by a Royal Decree issued by His Majesty King Hussein in 1963 as the national air carrier, with the aim of contributing to developing and promoting services, creating better ties with the world, promoting interaction with other cultures and establishing relations with other nations. Now, under the invaluable guidance and directives of His Majesty King Abdullah II, who spares no effort in lending his support to the airline, RJ continues its strides by renewing its fleet and expanding its route network and operations.

RJ's vision is to be the Airline of choice connecting Jordan and the Levant with the world. Its headquarters are located in the heart of the capital, Amman, and its flights are operated from Queen Alia International Airport. Locally, Royal Wings, an RJ subsidiary company, is dedicated to charter business. RJ employs around 4,500 people in Jordan and at its outstations around the world.

The company was registered on Feb. 5, 2001 under the name of “Alia”, the Royal Jordanian Airline Public Shareholding Company. In December 2007, the Jordanian government sold 71% of the RJ shares to local and international investors.

The capital rose to today's JD84.4 million.

RJ transported 2.7 million passengers in 2009, and registered JD28.6 million net profit.

Fleet modernization program:

RJ completed the strategic plan that included modernizing its short- and medium-range fleet by introducing modern aircraft, of which four are Airbus A321s, four Airbus A320s, four Airbus A319s, five Embraer 195s and two Embraer 175s. In the last quarter of this year, a new Embraer 175 will also be added to the fleet.

The airline designated names of Jordanian cities on its new aircraft as a part of its mission of promoting Jordan to the world.

The company also intends to modernize its fleet of long-range aircraft. In 2006, the airline placed its order to introduce 11 Boeing 787s. However, it is weighing the most suitable options for RJ customers, in light of the announcement that Boeing delayed delivering the first B787 Dreamliner that was scheduled to join the fleet in 2010.

In May this year, RJ introduced two new Airbus A330s, with the decision to phase out the Airbus A310 aircraft. Another Airbus A330 is also bound to join the RJ fleet in the near future.

The A330 aircraft are to serve the flights to the Far East destinations and the London route.

The company's strategy for 2010 involves modernizing the Airbus A340s currently servicing the long-range destinations, by equipping them with the distinguished amenities offered passengers onboard the other new aircraft.

The Royal Jordanian fleet now consists of 29 modern aircraft.

The route network:

Networkwise, RJ resumed its operations to Brussels in April 2009 after six years of suspending the service, and started operating to Benghazi, Libya, in June 2009. And in March 2010, the airline inaugurated direct service to Madinah, Saudi Arabia, and brought back Kuala Lampur to its route network in June this year. 

The last two new stations brought the airline’s destinations to 57, spread over four continents.

In order to cater to the demand on travel, RJ is considering expanding its route network during the coming three years to many cities around the world like: Johannesburg, Tehran, Izmir, Luxor, Aswan and others.

Royal Jordanian currently has marketing alliances, through code sharing, with several international airlines: American Airlines, British Airways, US Airways, Iberia, Malév Hungarian Airlines, Siberia airlines (S7), Tarom, Gulf Air, Syrian Airlines and Yemen Airways.

Joining the oneworld airline alliance:

In view of its reputation and international level of competitiveness, Royal Jordanian was invited to join the oneworld airline alliance. RJ is thus the first Arab and regional air carrier selected to join any of the three global airline alliances (oneworld, SkyTeam and Star Alliance), and the first airline to join oneworld in the last five years.

The airline officially joined oneworld on April 1, 2007, after it completed all technical and technological requirements to become part of the grouping.

The oneworld member airlines operate 2,500 aircraft flying to almost 750 points and carrying around 330 million passengers yearly. They attain annual revenues reaching US$100 billion.

Automated systems:

To meet all the requirements of its membership in the oneworld global alliance, RJ introduced several advanced, state-of-the-art systems to link up with the alliance members; the most significant are the frequent flyer program (Hitit), the revenue management system (PROS) and the revenue accounting system (Sirax). In 2009, RJ implemented new cargo IT platform of CHAMP Cargosystems, Cargospot, and adopted PROS Origin & Destination Group System and PROS Origin & Destination Revenue Management System. Additionally, it selected Amadeus Altéa solution, to manage RJ passenger services systems including reservations, inventory and departure control. The airline will start implementing the solution starting with October 2010.

Other IT systems were also implemented at the airline to make it easier for passengers to deal with all travel procedures, like e-ticketing, Internet booking, the Common Use Self Service check-in system (CUSS) and a new Departure Control System. The airline's 24/7 Call Centre offers RJ customers from all over the world reservation services, information regarding the frequent flyer program, flight schedules, luggage and ticket fares. Royal Jordanian provides competitive ticket prices and valuable offers to give wider choices to passengers.

Starting April 1, 2010, RJ launched a new service, ‘Online check-in’, enabling passengers to issue their boarding passes electronically from their homes, offices or any place connected to the Internet, through its website.

Adding this service, RJ allows travelers to complete all travel procedures electronically.

Awards:

Royal Jordanian won seven world-class awards, seven of which are granted to the air transport industry and one national award. It was awarded the Merit Award for the Airline Turnaround of the Year 2006 held by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) in Singapore. The award acknowledges the airline's successful turnaround and strong strategic contribution to the aviation industry.

In 2007, Air Transport World (ATW), presented RJ the Phoenix Award at the 2007 ATW Airline Industry Achievement Awards in Washington.