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CEO Samer Majali said a leasing contract to boost the airline’s fleet of A320neos and A321neos will begin fulfillment by year’s end.
Royal Jordanian (RJ) is working to negotiate through the fraught geopolitical situation in the Middle East region, while also undergoing a major expansion.
The conflict in Gaza has placed the region on high alert. While not minimizing the human tragedy of the situation, RJ CEO Samer Majali is frustrated that problems in one part of the region lead outsiders to assume the entire area is unsafe.
Jordan, Majali stressed to ATW, remains a safe, stable country. It is also a country with historic and natural sites of outstanding beauty, including the ancient city of Petra and the Wadi Rum protected reserve. But when trouble flares in the broader region, tourist bookings from Europe and North America slump. The oneworld alliance airline has also lost traffic from Arabs living in the West Bank and the “Arab 48” community: Arab families who have lived in Israel since the Jewish state was created in 1948. Both groups often travel via Amman. The airline has also stopped flying to Tel Aviv.
“As you know, in this industry you pay your costs come hell or high water in advance and they’re fixed,” Majali noted. Revenues, meanwhile, arrive later and depend on a variety of factors that are often unforeseen.
Despite the issues that RJ faces in its region, the airline is continuing to develop, expand and provide a service for Jordan and its wider passenger market, Majali said.
The airline is hosting this year’s annual meeting of the Arab Air Carriers Organization (AACO), which will bring together more than 30 airlines near the Dead Sea at the end of October.
Although RJ plans significant expansion over the coming years, the carrier’s home hub of Amman Queen Alia International Airport (AMM) retains sufficient capacity to cope. AMM can handle more than 10 million passengers annually, and airport authorities are planning to increase both the number of gates and the scale of apron parking, Majali noted.
RJ also has a major re-fleeting in progress. The aim is to expand from around 26 aircraft to 41 or 42 over the next couple of years, with two new aircraft entering the fleet for each that is retired. Delays in deliveries, however, mean that it is difficult to plan.
The fleet expansion includes the addition of eight new Embraer E190/195 E2s, which will replace and expand the previous regional fleet of two E170 and two E190 E1s and be used to further Majali’s plan to grow traffic in the Levant.
The aim is to use the small narrowbodies to expand traffic within the region—when geopolitical tensions subside—by connecting short-haul services through Amman, as well as funnelling some of that traffic to onward connections within the airline’s North American and Far East routes.
Mid-haul routes are also increasing: Lyon, France, last year, and now Berlin and Dusseldorf in Germany, and Moscow are scheduled to start before the end of 2024.
This means the arrival of 20 Airbus A320neo-family aircraft, nine Boeing 787-9s and eight Embraer E190/195 E2s. The 787s are a mix of leased aircraft from AerCap and six direct from Boeing, while the Airbuses will all be leased.
“A year-and-a-half ago, when we started doing this, Airbus had no aircraft available until 2027-28. We have 18 contracted for at the moment—15 A320neos and three A321neos—and we’re looking for two more A321s to contract to complete the 20,” Majali said. He is hopeful that the first three will arrive by the end of the year, followed by 13 more in 2025.
Among the new A320neos will be three in an all-economy layout that will be used for inbound tourism from Europe and on Indian services. Despite their lack of a business class, they will be well-appointed, with leather seats and Wi-Fi.
The company’s existing seven 787-8s are still relatively young and will receive refurbished cabins.
The Embraer deliveries have been easier. Four have already arrived, with a fifth scheduled by early fall, with two more promised in 2025 and the last in 2026.
RJ is also considering the introduction of a premium-economy product and is studying that possibility.
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