| Airline | Royal Jordanian الملكية الأردنية |
|---|---|
| Logo | Royal Jordanian Logo.svg |
| Logo size | 230 |
| Fleet size | 34 (+18 orders/leases, 16 options) |
| Destinations | 58 |
| Iata | RJ |
| Icao | RJA |
| Callsign | JORDANIAN |
| Founded | 1963 as Alia Airlines |
| Headquarters | Housing Bank Commercial Center Amman, Jordan |
| Key people | Hussein Dabbas (CEO) |
| Hubs | Queen Alia International Airport |
| Focus cities | Aqaba Airport |
| Frequent flyer | Royal Plus |
| Lounge | Crown Lounge |
| Alliance | Oneworld (2006) |
| Tourist program | Kawar Travel |
| Company slogan | "The Art of Flying" |
| Website | rj.com |
Royal Jordanian Airlines (; transliterated: al-Malakiyah al-Orduniyah) is an airline with its head office in Amman, Jordan, operating scheduled international services over four continents from its main base at Queen Alia International Airport at Amman (AMM) Jordan. Royal Jordanian (RJ) is a member of the Arab Air Carriers Organization and of Oneworld, a global airline alliance. Royal Jordanian won the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation award for "Airline Turnaround of the Year 2006" on 9 November 2006. The airline operates over 500 flights per week, with at least 110 daily departures. In 2005 the company was able to buy its initialism and IATA code "RJ" as an Internet address, RJ.com. Royal Jordanian was voted "Airline of the Year 2007" by Air Finance Journal.
Alia (the Royal Jordanian Airline) started operations with two Handley Page Dart Heralds and a Douglas DC-7 aircraft, serving Kuwait City, Beirut and Cairo from Amman. In 1964, another DC-7 was added and service began to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In 1965, Alia initiated service to Rome, Italy, its first destination in Europe. The progress made by the airline was threatened by an Israeli air raid during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War when the DC-7 aircraft were destroyed. They were replaced by two Fokker F-27 airliners.
In 1968, the airline expanded its route pattern to Nicosia, Benghazi, Dhahran and Doha. 1969 saw the addition of service to Munich, Istanbul and Tehran. of Alia in the short-lived, experimental early-1980s livery]]
In 1970, Alia joined the jet age when they phased out the F-27s and ordered Boeing 707 aircraft. Frankfurt and Abu Dhabi were added to the network. The 707s were delivered in 1971. In that year, service was initiated to Madrid, Copenhagen and Karachi. During the rest of the decade, Boeing 720/727s and Boeing 747s were added to the fleet. A catering department was established, and duty-free shops were opened at Amman airport. Services were added to destinations including: Manama, Dubai, Muscat, Rabat, Geneva, Amsterdam, Baghdad, Bangkok, Vienna, Larnaca replacing Nicosia, Damascus, New York City, Houston, and Ras al-Khaimah. In 1979, Alia became a founding member of the Arab Airlines Technical Consortium (AATC).
In the 1980s, Tunis and Tripoli joined the route map, and Alia's IBM computer center was inaugurated. Lockheed L-1011s, Airbus A310s and Airbus A320s joined the fleet. In 1986, Alia changed its name to Royal Jordanian. The airline's first woman pilot flew one of their aircraft during this decade. Service was added to Belgrade, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Bucharest, Singapore, Riyadh, Kuala Lumpur – in cooperation with MAS, Sana'a, Moscow, Montreal, Delhi, Calcuttaand Ankara. This decade also saw the introduction of the Gabriel Automated Ticket System – (GATS). in Aqaba]]
The 1990s saw further expansion. Royal Jordanian and nine other Arab air carriers signed up for the Galileo Reservations System. The IMCS maintenance and engineering system was added, a new Amman city air terminal was opened at the 7th Circle of the Jordanian capital, and services to Rafah started, since then halted. The cities of Toronto, Colombo, Jakarta, Berlin, Mumbai, Milan and Tel Aviv were added to the network. In November, 1997 Royal Jordanian became a code-sharing partner with the US carrier TWA and eventually moved operations into the TWA Flight Center (Terminal 5) at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
In 2000, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) renewed the airline's maintenance and engineering department's license. The duty-free shop was among the services to be privatised. A holding company, RJI, wholly-owned by the government, was incorporated as a public limited company in February 2001 to hold all the airline's and associated investments. The airline's name was changed on 5 February 2001 to Alia – The Royal Jordanian Airlines Company, although travellers still use the popular name of Royal Jordanian.
On 10 February 1996, the flag carrier's subsidiary Royal Wings started its first domestic service to Aqaba, the seaport on the Gulf of Aqaba, using a Fokker F-27. Royal Wings now operates an Airbus A320-212 aircraft on both scheduled and charter services to destinations in Egypt, Cyprus and Israel.
On 20 December 2006, Royal Jordanian announced that they would replace two Airbus A321s with two new units, and order four new Airbus A319s to enter service in early 2008.
In April 2007, Royal Jordanian became part of the Oneworld alliance, thus becoming the first Arab airline to join such a global alliance system. The following month, the airline announced an order for a total of 10 Boeing 787s, for service entry in 2010. This is the first order Royal Jordanian has placed with Boeing.
Montreal, Canada, rejoined the network on 25 May 2007, after the route was cancelled in 1997. Also during May, Royal Jordanian was the sponsor of the World Economic Forum, which was held at the Dead Sea, Jordan.
On 11 July 2007, Royal Jordanian celebrated thirty years of non-stop service between Amman and New York City, making it the longest serving Arab airline to this gateway to the U.S.. RJ won the "Airline Strategy Award" in the technology category at the sixth annual "Airline Strategy Awards" on 16 July 2007. On 23 July, RJ saw the introduction of cargo flights, Damascus being the first destination served from Amman, using a Boeing 737.
Royal Jordanian made its first flight to Budapest, Hungary, on 28 July, using an Embraer 195. In October, RJ announced the switch of two Embraer 195 jets of its original order to two Embraer 175 jets. Royal Jordanian opened a new lounge at Aqaba Airport.
RJ will be the first Middle East airline to provide its passengers with OnAir’s in-flight Internet and mobile phone services, including e-mail, SMS and voice calls. Royal Jordanian has upgraded its three Airbus A310s at a cost of over 10 million Jordanian dinars (JOD).
Royal Jordanian was privatised at the end of 2007, resulting in 71% of its assets being sold. The market capitalisation of the company stands at 260 million JOD, and share-trading commenced on 17 December 2007.
On 24 December 2007, Royal Jordanian confirmed Baku as one of its new destinations for 2008, using an Embraer 195 twice weekly from Amman. In early 2008, however, RJ officials decided against the new route, citing that high fuel prices and a new market were a risk too large to take at that time. Royal Jordanian plans to operate the Amman-Baku route in late 2009 or early 2010. On 22 January 2008, RJ launched flights to Hong Kong via Bangkok, with three flights/week during winter, and five flights/week during summer, making it the airline's first route to China.
The Airbus A319 entered service on 13 March 2008, making RJ the first Middle East airline to operate three aircraft of the Airbus A320 family. On 17 August 2008, Royal Jordanian opened a new route to Kiev, using Embraer 195 jets for this twice weekly service. On 24 August 2008, Royal Jordanian opened its new lounge at Queen Alia International Airport Amman, replacing the "Petra" and "Jerash" lounges. The new lounge is located on the second floor of the South Terminal and is the second-largest airport lounge in the Middle East, being able to handle over 340 passengers.
The airline recorded an 18% increase in passenger numbers in July 2008. With the airline transporting 278,000 passengers, the seat factor grew by 5% in that month to reach 81%. As part of Royal Jordanian's commitment to its airline alliance Oneworld, an announcement was made at the alliance's 10th birthday celebrations on 3 February 2009 that RJ would paint its new A319 (due for delivery in late March) in a scheme that would be based around the Oneworld name and logo. This is the first special colour scheme Royal Jordanian will have used.
Royal Jordanian resumed service to Brussels on 1 April 2009, six years after the route was discontinued by the airline, flying twice weekly from Amman with the airline planning to add a further two flights per week later in 2009.
On 28 March 2010, Royal Jordanian inaugurated regular direct flights to Madinah Munawwarh, Saudi Arabia, with four weekly flights. On the 23 March, Royal Jordanian confirmed that it had ordered two A330-200s and one Embraer 175. Royal Jordanian recommenced operations to Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur June 2 2010 after it had suspended this route in 2004. Aircraft used on this route is the new Airbus A330-200.
*Aircraft kilometers 2009: 66,017,391 ( 2.48%) Number of departures 2009: 35,715 ( 1,430) Flying hours 2009: 105,579 ( 3.98%) Total number of passengers 2009: 2,668,590 ( 1.20%) Seat factor 2009: 68%. ( 4%) Employees 2009: 4,399 ( 108)
*Scheduled passenger flights 2006: 294,237 ( 2.83%) Scheduled cargo flights 2006: 43,326 ( 5.70%) Scheduled excess baggage flights 2006: 4,891 ( 9.77%) Scheduled airmail flights 2006: 2,851 ( 17.08%)
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In early 2009, Royal Jordanian returned both Fokker F28 Mk4000s to AirQuarius Aviation as it decided to use more efficient aircraft to Iraq, due to the high fuel prices. Since that decision was made RJ has been using its Embraer fleet to operate Iraqi routes.
Source: Skyscraper City forum post
The aircraft, registration JY-AYP, has its fuselage painted white, with the tailfin and engines in normal Royal Jordanian colours. "A member of Oneworld" in prominent lettering is located at the front of the aircraft, with the usual title "Royal Jordanian" further back.
The four tiers in the Royal Plus Program are:
* Royal Plus Blue
Card holders of Royal Jordanian's Royal Plus with either Silver, Gold or Platinum can use any Oneworld airline lounge/airport services across the world.
Royal Jordanian, remains the only international airline in the world to offer its Economy Class passengers three meal options to choose from beef, fish or poultry on any flight of over two hours duration.
* In Economy Class onboard the A319, A320, A321, A330 and A340 aircraft all passengers are supplied with personal televisions (PTV), the system is audio- and video-on-demand system (AVOD). The system provides passengers with a selection of movies, television shows, audio and games. The A310 aircraft does not feature PTVs and AVOD in Economy Class; instead they feature bulkhead-mounted screens, as well as LCD screens located every five rows along the cabin.
* In Crown Class, passengers are provided with AVOD which includes a large library of movies, television shows, audio and games onboard the A319, A320, A321, A330 and A340 aircraft. Portable entertainment devices (IMS) are only available for Crown Class passengers flying on A310 and Embraer aircraft. The IMS service is provided on all international flights. The IMS library contains movies, short subjects, an audio library and games.
Interactive games are available in all classes on all flights, as well as news provided by CNN on all flights.
On very short flights, from Amman to Tel Aviv, Amman to Beirut and Amman to Damascus, the AVOD system is turned on but there is only the selection of games, CNN News the "Flight Show" and the comedy channel. This is due to the flights being less than 45 minutes hence movies/shows would not be complete upon arrival.
Seat pitch is 83 inches on the A340, 51 inches on the A310 and 46 inches on the short and medium haul aircraft.
In Economy Class Royal Jordanian offers 32-inch seat pitch onboard its Embraer aircraft, whilst it offers 33-inch seat pitch onboard its Airbus aircraft. All Royal Jordanian Economy class seats also offer a foot-rest.
On the new Airbus 330-200, Royal Jordanian offers lie-flat seats in Crown Class with a 62-inch seat pitch, as well as a 34-inch seat pitch in the economy class cabin
Since this is the only lounge at Queen Alia International Airport, it is also used by any passenger traveling business or first class in or out of Amman. Royal Jordanian announced that it was going to open three new lounges in Dubai, New York and London with the lounges set to open in late 2009 or early 2010.
In the 1960s Alia's head office was in the Mango Building in Amman.
*On 10 April 1965, an Alia Jordanian Handley Page Dart Herald en route from Beirut to Amman crashed near Damascus in Syria. All four crew members and 50 passengers were killed. The aircraft was written-off. On 22 January 1973, an Alia Jordanian Boeing 707 crashed on landing at Kano airport in Nigeria. Six crew members and 170 passengers were killed. The aircraft was written-off. On 3 August 1975, an Alia Jordanian Boeing 707 heading for Agadir airport in Morocco crashed into high ground. All seven crew members and 181 passengers were killed. On 13 March 1979, an Alia Jordanian Boeing 727 crashed on landing at Doha airport in Qatar. Three crew members and 42 passengers were killed. The aircraft was written-off.
Since the name of the carrier was changed to Royal Jordanian Airlines, the only fatal incident was when a hijacker, seeking political asylum, was killed on 5 July 2000, on board a Royal Jordanian Airbus A320 flying from Amman to Damascus.
Category:Airlines of Jordan Category:IATA members Category:Arab Air Carriers Organization members Category:Airlines established in 1963 Jordan Category:Companies of Jordan Category:Amman
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