Royal Jordanian

Royal Jordanian
الملكية الأردنية

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IATA ICAO Callsign RJ RJA JORDANIAN
Founded	December 9, 1963 (1963-12-09) as Alia Airlines – Royal Jordanian Airlines
Hubs	Queen Alia Airport
Focus cities	King Hussein Airport
Frequent-flyer program	Royal Plus
Airport lounge	Crown Lounge
Alliance	Oneworld
Subsidiaries	Royal Wings Royal Jordanian Cargo Royal Jordanian Ground Handling
Fleet size	26
Destinations	60
Company slogan	"A World of Stories"
Headquarters	Amman, Jordan
Key people	Suleiman AlHafez, Chairman Suleiman Obeidat, Interim President and CEO
Website	www.rj.com

Royal Jordanian Airlines (Arabic: الملكية الأردنية‎‎; transliterated: Al-Malakiyyah al-'Urduniyyah) is the flag carrier airline of Jordan 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 the Oneworld global airline alliance. The airline operates over 500 flights per week, with at least 110 daily departures.

History

1960s to 1990s

File:Boeing 707-3D3C JY-ADO Alia LHR 22.08.71 edited-2.jpg

Alia Boeing 707-300 at London Heathrow Airport in 1971

The airline was established on 9 December 1963 and started operations on 15 December 1963 after a royal decree by the late King Hussein. It was named Alia (or Aalya) after King Hussein's eldest child, Princess Alia bint Al Hussein of Jordan (born on 13 February 1956). It is a common misconception that the airline was named after the King's third wife, Queen Alia whom King Hussein did not marry until 1972. The airline was founded with capital from private shareholders but the Jordanian government later took over the company.

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. In 1965, Alia initiated service to Rome, 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.

File:Royal Jordanian Airlines L-1011 in Geneva.jpg

Lockheed L-1011 TriStar 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: Bahrain, 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, Calcutta and Ankara. This decade also saw the introduction of the Gabriel Automated Ticket System – (GATS).

File:Alia Boeing 747-200 Gilliand.jpg

A Boeing 747-200 of the airline as seen in 1978.

The 1990s saw further expansion. Royal Jordanian and nine other Arab air carriers signed up for the Galileo CRS. 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 Trans World Airlines and moved operations into the TWA Flight Center (Terminal 5) at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. [3]

2000 and beyond, and privatization

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 2006, 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 Oneworld, 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 787 Dreamliners, for service entry in 2010. This is the first order Royal Jordanian has placed with Boeing.

File:Royal.jordanian.a321-200.jy-ayg.arp.jpg

Airbus A321-200

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, 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 King Hussein International Airport in Aqaba.

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 privatized at the end of 2007, resulting in 71% of its assets being sold. The market capitalization 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 Munawwarah, 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 on June 2, 2010 after it had suspended this route in 2004. Aircraft used on this route is the new Airbus A330-200.

In May 2011, Royal Jordanian announced that they will retire the Airbus A310 aircraft in December 2011, and January 2012. Royal Jordanian uses an Airbus A330 and an Airbus A321 for non-stop flights London.(Terminal 3)

In June 2014, Royal Jordanian announced that suspended services to Mosul in northern Iraq due to the capture of the airport by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

The first of Royal Jordanian's Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft (267-seat, two-class configuration) entered service in September 2014, initially linking Amman with Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The 787 Dreamliner is Royal Jordanian's first Boeing aircraft since the 707s and 747s, and replaced the Airbus A340-200s which had reached the end of their lives. The Dreamliners will also replace the Airbus A330-200s as leases on those aircraft expire. The Dreamliners are generally used on Royal Jordanian's Far East destinations, to London and North America, and occasionally to the United Arab Emirates.

Advertisement campaigns

Royal Jordanian Slogans

Slogan	Year commenced	Year finished
"From Jordan to the world"	1963	1968
"Excellence in air"	1968	1974
"Journey in Royalty" and "The way you want to fly"	1974	2005
"Change is in the air"	2006	2008
"You're There."	2008	2010
"The Art of Flying"	2010	2014
"A World of Stories"	2014	Present

Statistics

The following information can be found in the 2009 and 2013 Royal Jordanian Annual Reports.

Financial and operational statistics

Year	Aircraft kilometers	Departures	Flying hours	Passengers	Seat factor	Employees	Profit/loss
2002	37,767,709	17,096	55,970	1,339,779	66%	3,008	Loss 3,044,000 JOD
2003	36,933,462	16,202	54,972	1,404,588	68%	3,162	Loss 9,753,000 JOD
2004	44,557,377	19,148	66,004	1,736,637	71%	3,313	Profit 15,327,000 JOD
2005	45,557,377	20,777	68,883	1,821,329	69%	3,557	Profit 20,516,000 JOD
2006	52,274,917	25,661	77,374	2,004,559	66%	3,799	Profit 6,135,000 JOD
2007	56,055,803	30,244	88,378	2,288,000	71%	4,275	Profit 24,111,000 JOD
2008	64,379,058	34,285	101,381	2,701,000	72%	4,507	Loss 23,400,000 JOD
2009	66,017,391	35,715	105,579	2,668,590	68%	4,399	Profit 28,614,000 JOD
2010	70,982,000	38,882	113,113	3,002,000	71%
2011	73,487,000	39,775	116,175	3,197,000	69%
2012	72,445,000	39,963	116,275	3,392,000	73%
2013	73,629,000	39,697	119,197	3,308,000	70%

• 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 services

Year	Passengers	Cargo	Excess baggage	Airmail
2005	285,913	45,944	4,413	2,364
2006	294,237	43,326	4,891	2,851

• 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%)

Destinations

Main article: Royal Jordanian destinations

Codeshare agreements

Royal Jordanian has codeshare agreements with the following airlines :

Oneworld Alliance

Air Berlin American Airlines British Airways Iberia

Malaysia Airlines Qatar Airways S7 Airlines

Other Airlines

• Gulf Air
• Syrian Air
• TAROM
• Meridiana Fly
• Oman Air
• Middle East Airlines
• Turkish Airlines

Fleet

Current fleet

File:Royal Jordanian A330-200 JY-AIG LHR 2014-03-29.png

A Royal Jordanian Airbus A330-200 on short final to London Heathrow Airport in 2014.

File:Royal Jordanian Airline A319-100 JY-AYM IST Dec 2013.png

A Royal Jordanian Airbus A319-100 at Istanbul Atatürk Airport in 2013.

File:JY-BAA Boeing 787-8 Royal Jordanian Airlines heading to std 323 on its first visit.jpg

Royal Jordanian Boeing 787-8 taxiing at London Heathrow Airport.

Royal Jordanian Airlines Boeing 787-8 arrives London Heathrow Airport (2015)

The Royal Jordanian fleet consists of the following aircraft

Royal Jordanian Fleet

Aircraft	Total	Orders	Options	Passengers			Notes
				C	Y	Total
Airbus A319-100	4	—	—	14	96	110	Fitted with on-air mobile services JY-AYP painted in Oneworld livery
Airbus A320-200	6	—	—	16	120	136	Fitted with on-air mobile services
Airbus A321-200	2	—	—	20	147	167	Fitted with on-air mobile services
Airbus A330-200	2	—	—	24	259	283	To be phased out in 2016.
Boeing 787–8	5	7	—	23	244	267	Expected to only receive two more aircraft. First airline in the Middle East to order the Dreamliner.
Embraer ERJ-175	3	—	—	12	60	72	–
Embraer ERJ-195	2	—	—	12	88	100	First Middle-Eastern airline to operate type
Total	24	7

Future fleet plans

Royal Jordanian intends to have a fleet of 38 aircraft by the year 2017, with 11 Boeing 787s, 4 Airbus A319s, 8 Airbus A320s, 6 Airbus A321s and 9 Embraer E-Jets.

Cargo

File:Airbus A310.jpg

Airbus A310-300F near Brussels, Belgium

Royal Jordanian Cargo (Royal Jordanian Airlines Cargo) is the company's freight division operating to Africa, Europe, North America and Middle East.

Royal Jordanian Cargo Fleet

Aircraft	In Fleet	Capacity	Notes
Airbus A310-300F	2	35.5 tonnes

Retired fleet

Royal Jordanian has also operated the following aircraft:

Royal Jordanian Retired Fleet

Aircraft	Total	Retired
Airbus A300	1	2001
Airbus A310	12	2012
Airbus A340-200	4	2014
Boeing 707-320C	4	1996
Boeing 727-200	4	1990
Boeing 747-2D3B	2	1990
Douglas DC-7	2	1967
Handley Page Dart Herald	2	1960s
Lockheed L-1011	2	1991
Fokker F-27	3	1970
Airbus A330-200	1	2014
Fokker F-28	2	2009
Sud Aviation Caravelle 10R	3	1960s
Total	37

Aircraft names

The airline has named its new aircraft after Jordanian cities. The wide-body aircraft such as the Airbus A340 in the past and now the Boeing 787 Dreamliners are named after members of the Hashemite Royal Family. Also, one of the 787s has "Amman", Jordan's capital city, as its name.

Livery

Royal Jordanians's livery is a dark grey fuselage with the titles in gold both in English and Arabic. Red tips are located on the fins, winglets and engines of the aircraft as well as two strips, one gold and one red, down the fuselage. The fin contains a crown. This livery has been in use since 2006; before then the livery was similar, however the engines were not painted, and the fin did not have a curved stripe atop. In September 2015, a Royal Jordanian Airbus A319, JY-AYN, was painted with the new belly logo. The rest of the fleet is expected to be painted with this over the following few months.

Special color schemes

Until 2009 Royal Jordanian had never had an aircraft painted in a special colour scheme. It announced at the 10th birthday celebrations in February 2009 of the airline alliance Oneworld that it would paint its new A319 due for delivery in late March in a special scheme, which would be based around the Oneworld name and logo.

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.

Royal Plus

Royal Plus is Royal Jordanian's frequent flyer program. Passengers are awarded miles based on the type, class of flight and destination. Royal Plus members can also get miles by traveling on other Oneworld airlines.

The four tiers in the Royal Plus Program are:

• Royal Plus Blue
• Royal Plus Silver
• Royal Plus Gold
• Royal Plus Platinum

Card holders of Royal Jordanian's Royal Plus with either Silver, Gold or Platinum can use Oneworld airport services across the world while Gold and Platinum also have lounge access.

Services

Catering

Food and drinks served on flights leaving Amman are provided by Alpha Group. Hot meals will be served on a flight of at least one hour length. If the flight is shorter than one hour the cabin crew will provide snacks and drinks throughout the flight. These flights include those to Tel Aviv, Cairo, Baghdad, Beirut and Aqaba from Amman.

Royal Jordanian, remains one of only five international airlines 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.The other 4 airlines that offer Economy class passengers 3 choices are Singapore Airlines , Etihad Airways, Emirates and Virgin Atlantic.

In-flight entertainment

Royal Jordanian's onboard entertainment system is called "Sky Cinema".

File:Royal Jordanian A330-200 AVOD.JPG

AVOD on board Royal Jordanian's Airbus A330

• In Economy Class on board the Airbus and Boeing 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.

• In Crown Class, passengers are provided with AVOD which includes a large library of movies, television shows, audio and games on board the Airbus and Boeing aircraft. Portable entertainment devices (IMS) are only available for Crown Class passengers flying on 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.

Seating

Crown Class seats on Boeing 787s are fully flat beds. Seat pitch is 83 inches on the Dreamliners and 46 inches on the short and medium haul aircraft.

In Economy Class Royal Jordanian offers 32-inch seat pitch on board its Embraer aircraft, whilst it offers 34-inch seat pitch on board its Airbus aircraft. All Royal Jordanian Economy class seats also offer a foot-rest.`

On the Airbus A330-200s, 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

Crown Class lounges

Crown Class passengers can use lounges across the world including all Oneworld member airline lounges. As of August 2008 Royal Jordanian operates two lounges: one in Amman, at Queen Alia International Airport, and one at Aqaba, at King Hussein International Airport. In August 2008 Royal Jordanian opened its new lounge, which can handle over 340 passengers. It is located in the South Terminal on the second floor and replaces the previous Jerash and Petra lounges in the airport. The new lounge is the second largest in the Middle East.

Awards

• 2007 Airline Strategy Award by Airline Business magazine
• King Abdullah II Award for Excellence, large service organizations category
• Phoenix Award, 2007, by Air Transport World magazine
• CAPA Merit Award for the Airline Turnaround of the Year 2006
• "Airline of the Year 2007" by Air Finance Journal
• Punctuality Award 2009, Intercontinental category, by Schiphol Aviation Awards

Employment

Royal Jordanian has invested heavily in its crew training facility at its headquarters in Amman. As of 2008, Royal Jordanian employed 4,507 people.

Rivalry

Royal Jordanian is the second-largest carrier in the Levant and the only major Arab carrier serving Israel. It began to put into place a new strategy at the end of 2002 which saw the airline concentrate on its neighboring nations, with increased frequencies. In a plan to establish itself as the Middle East's "regional airline" it began to add smaller routes such as Alexandria in Egypt to Aleppo in Syria which the bigger airlines, such as Emirates, would not undertake with the larger aircraft compared to Royal Jordanian's regional jets. As of the end of 2008, the plan had proven successful for the airline, with its main rivals being Middle East Airlines and Egypt Air.

Since 2008 Royal Jordanian has faced increased competition within the Middle East. The arrival of many new low cost airlines such as Air Arabia, Jazeera Airways and flydubai have caused problems for the Jordanian airline. With the arrival of these new airlines Royal Jordanian has focused upon improving its onboard and ground services in order to retain market share.

Charter services

The operation of private charter flights using aircraft from the Royal Jordanian fleet is uncommon, but may be arranged if aircraft of Royal Wings, the subsidiary company of Royal Jordanian, cannot meet customer requirements.

File:RJ bld, Amman, Jordan.jpg

Royal Jordanian's new headquarters in Amman

Head office

As of 2009 Haddadinco Engineering Company for Contracting is building the new Royal Jordanian head office in Amman. The building was designed by Niels Torp. The new building was completed in late 2011, and RJ employees began work in the building on January 3, 2012.

In the 1960s Alia's head office was in the Mango Building in Amman.

Accidents and incidents

Royal Jordanian has experienced 13 aviation occurrences throughout its history, four of them fatal. The airline's two worst accidents, both involving chartered Boeing 707s, happened in Nigeria in 1973 and Morocco in 1975, and to date are both the deadliest accidents in those countries and the deadliest worldwide involving the 707.

• On January 22, 1973, 176 people were killed when an ALIA Boeing 707 was landing at Kano, Nigeria.
• On August 3, 1975, all 188 persons were killed when an ALIA Boeing 707 struck a mountain ridge while making its approach for a landing in Morocco.
• On March 14, 1979, 45 of the 64 persons aboard an ALIA Boeing 727 were killed as a result of a windshear on landing at the Doha Airport in Qatar.

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 by the on-board security agent on 5 July 2000, on board a Royal Jordanian Airbus A320 flying from Amman to Damascus.

External links

• Official website (Royal Jordanian)
• Official website (Royal Jordanian Cargo)