Birthday party for RJ

Royal Jordanian celebrates its anniversary today. December 15 marks 46 years since His Majesty King Hussein issued a decree to establish Jordan’s national 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.

“Comparing the results of the first year of its establishment and those estimated for 2009, it can be seen that the number of passengers increased from 87,000 in 1964 to an estimated 2.667 million at the end of this year,” wrote the company in a statement. “The number of flights grew to reach 35,628 this year, in comparison to 4,193 in 1964. Moreover, the number of aircraft rose from two to 29, and RJ’s destinations from three to 56.”

Financially, the company’s revenues were JD1 million in 1964, expecting them to reach JD574 million in the 2009 fiscal year. A large increase could be observed in employees’ productivity, from JD4,000 in the year of establishment to JD134,000 per employee this year, said the company.

Royal Jordanian was transformed into a public shareholding company fully owned by the government on February 5, 2001. Its capital rose to today’s JD84.4 million.

In December 2007, the Jordanian government floated around 60 per cent of the shares for underwriting, representing 71 per cent of the total issued share capital, keeping 29 per cent of the shares. RJ shares started trading on the Amman Stock Exchange on December 17, 2007. At that time, Jordanians owned approximately 56.2 per cent of the shares which increased to today’s 68 per cent.

Nowadays, RJ employs 4,300 people in Jordan and at its outstations around the world. It operates a modern fleet of aircraft, including Airbus A310, A319, A320, A321, A340, Embraer 195 and Embraer 175 aircraft.

In March 2009, Royal Jordanian concluded the modernisation program of its short- and medium-haul fleet, whereby RJ introduced 19 newly manufactured airliners and designated names of Jordanian cities on the new aircraft as part of its mission of promoting Jordan to the world.

The airline selected the wide-body Boeing 787 Dreamliner as a replacement aircraft for its long-range Airbus A340s and A310s operating to the United States, Canada and the Far East. It placed its order to introduce about 12 Boeing 787s under the airline’s long-haul fleet modernization program.

The first B787 was scheduled to join the fleet in 2010 however it was delayed until the beginning of 2013, a Boeing decision. Negotiations are going on with Boeing to compensate RJ for this delay.

The airline opened new services to Brussels and Benghazi in 2009, bringing the airline’s destations to 56, and it will add Madinah Munawwarh in Saudi Arabia next April. In order to cater to the demand, RJ is considering expanding its route network by adding new destinations during the coming three years.

In recognition of the RJ achievements in the last few years, Royal Jordanian won six world-class awards, five of which are granted to the air transport industry and one national. It was awarded the Merit Award for the Airline Turnaround of the Year 2006 at the 3^rd Annual Asia Pacific and Middle East Aviation Outlook Summit, and the Phoenix Award presented by Air Transport World magazine (ATW).

RJ was nominated the winner of the Airline Strategy Award in the technology category organized by Airline Business magazine in 2007. At the beginning of 2008, Royal Jordanian was granted the “Airline of the Year 2007” award, following a study performed by Air Finance Journal. And in April this year, the airline was awarded the Air Cargo Award of Excellence in the Air Carrier category.

It also won King Abdullah II Award for Excellence in the large service organisations category.