47 years of RJ's establishment marked on Dec.ember 15
Tuesday, 14 December 2010
Amman, Dec. 15, 2010, marks the 47th anniversary of Royal Jordanian, launched by His Majesty King Hussein in 1963 to be the national carrier of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, 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.

Throughout its long history, the airline attained numerous achievements, most prominent among them, expanding its route network and modernizing its fleet. It also strived to offer the latest, and best, in air transport industry services, IT and engineering and maintenance.

The result has been repeated acknowledgment of the company’s excellence, international recognition and partnership in the global airline alliance oneworld, to which RJ acceded in 2007, becoming partner to giant air carriers.

In December 2007, the company's shares were listed on the Amman Stock Exchange at a capital of JD84.4 million; after the privatization and restructuring of the airline were completed, having started when RJ became a public shareholding company, in 2001.

Jordanians now own 68% of the shares, of which 26% belong to the Jordanian government, 10% to the Social Security Corporation and 3% to the armed forces. Additionally, shares were granted to the RJ employees, rewarding them for their efforts in the last few years.

The remarkable progress of the airline since its establishment is made all the more obvious when comparing the financial and operational results in 1964 to those expected at the end of 2010: the number of carried passengers increased from 87,000 in 1964 to more than 3 million in 2010 and the number of yearly flights from 4,193 to 38,800. RJ -- formerly Alia -- used to operate two aircraft flying to three destinations; now the fleet counts 32 modern aircraft flying to 58 cities spread over four continents.

Revenues increased from JD1 million at the end of 1964 to this year's expected JD641 million revenues. This directly reflects an increase of the employee productivity from JD4,000 in 1964 to JD148,000 .

The number of RJ employees increased from 250 in 1964 to 4,330 nowadays. They are highly qualified and experienced in the field of aviation, including 350 pilots, 940 flight attendants, 100 IT specialists and around 500 engineers and technicians.

Comparing this year's operational results to those of 2009, it can be seen that the number of passengers will have increased in 2010 to more than 3 million, compared to 2.6 million in 2009, marking a 13% growth. The seat factor is also bound to rise by 3%, from 68% to 70%, and flights by 9%, from 35,715 in 2009 to 38,813 in 2010. Flying hours are to increase by 7% from 105,000 to 113,000 and flown kilometers from 66,000 to 71,500 by 8%.

The uplifted cargo is also expected to rise from 41,500 to 53,500 tons, an increase of 29%.

Source: Press Release (Royal Jordanian)

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