Royal Jordanian Cuts Network

Royal Jordanian has confirmed the closure of five of its routes from Amman and a reduction in capacity across a number of additional markets as it attempts to reduce costs due, it says, to soaring fuel prices and to offset the decline in tourism to the region, the fall in demand during the Arab spring and the political unrest in the Middle East.

The airline will suspend its services to Al Ain, Brussels and Munich from dates in March and April, while two further locations in the Gulf area will see the loss of direct flights, although the routes concerned have not been publicly announced by Royal Jordanian. The carrier says these destinations were selected based on a recent performance and economic feasibility study. Alongside the route closures, frequency cuts will take place on flights between Amman and Amsterdam, Colombo, Geneva, Khartoum, Rome, Vienna and Zurich.

“The Arab spring and the political unrest that swept the Arab region last year is having a significant impact on Royal Jordanian,” the airline said in a statement and it is expecting visitor numbers to Jordan and the wider Middle East market to much reduced during the first quarter of this year. Further cuts may also be necessary and the company says it will cancel more flights during the year with the decision to be based on forward bookings over the coming months. It is also considering reducing the size of its fleet to take into account its reduced network scale.

Although the airline does not detail the possible destinations concerned it does highlight that its flights to destinations including Aden, Aleppo, Alexandria, Bahrain, Cairo, Damascus, Sharm El Sheikh and Tunis have all seen notable declines in traffic during the past year, translating into the loss of hundreds of thousands of passengers. Similarly, there has been a decline in tourist arrivals from Europe that resulted in 1,300 flight cancellations last year and over 460 more in the first three months of this year.

In the past year an estimated 4.8 million O&D passengers travelled between Jordan and the rest of the world, with the largest traffic flows being to Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Beirut (Lebanon), Cairo (Egypt) and Jeddah (Saudi Arabia). Despite the route cuts and negative outlook from Royal Jordanian the carrier says it has still been able to achieve a positive operational result in 2011 with passengers up 6.5 per cent and revenues up 6 per cent. However, costs have increased by an approximate 20 per cent during this period resulting in financial losses.