Amman, Royal Jordanian announced the passenger count of 268,000, in January 2012 its highest ever for the same month according to the airline. In the same period of 2011 the figure was 213,000 passengers, thus achieving a 25% increase from the previous year.

RJ President/CEO Hussein Dabbas said as released by Royal Jordanian, "that this record in January, which is one of the weakest months of the year in terms of the movement of passengers, raised the seat factor up to 72% in the said month, compared to 66% in the comparison period, which is an 11% increase. The flying hours during the same month increased by 5%, the departures by 3%, while the cargo uplifted, on cargo and passenger flights, by 24%."

Dabbas continued "the aviation industry is still suffering from a decline in travel, especially from Europe and the Far East, due to the events taking place in Syria, in spite of the increase in the operating performance indicators, as mentioned above, in addition to the sharp competition in the region which contributes to the drop in tickets prices and the inability of the company to increase yield and revenues in parallel with the increase in cost."

While Dabbas stressed "the soaring fuel prices in the current year raised the fuel bill paid by the airline in January 2012 to JD23.1 million, compared toJD17.7 million in the same month last year, an increase of 30%, which led to an increase in the total operating cost of the company for January by 17%."

Source: Royal Jordanian