Amman,  Royal Jordanian (RJ) decided to reverse its intention to suspend operations to Munich, scheduled to be halted as of April 19, 2012. On a previous announcement, (7th February 2102), RJ decided to halt operating to five destinations: Munich, Brussels, Al-Ain and two other undisclosed destinations in the Gulf  region.

The decision to terminated several routes is part of cost cutting measures resulting from high fuel cost, decline in tourism, and political unrest  in the region, according to the airline

Hussein Dabbas, Royal Jordanian P:resident said: "the operation would consist of two Munich frequencies. The service includes running one weekly direct flight from Amman to Munich on Saturdays and another combined with the service from Amman to Frankfurt on Wednesdays. RJ operates another five weekly direct flights to Frankfurt."

Dabbas added "RJ is a company that works on purely commercial basis; it conducts feasibility studies to all its stations. Thus, its decision to suspend operations to some destinations and to reduce frequencies to others aims at confronting the challenges of high fuel prices and regression on tourism."

He stressed  there is always an opportunity to resume operations to any of the mentioned cities when conditions improve and demand on travel grows in the future."

The RJ fuel bill reached JD293 million in 2011, compared to JD203 million in 2010, marking a 44% increase, leading to about 20% growth in the overall operational cost of the company.

A significant drop of tourists, mainly from Europe, marked all destinations; last year, RJ’s operational loss from the European continent amounted to 124,000 passengers. The drop in passenger numbers compelled the airline to cancel around 1,300 flights in 2011 and over 550 flights in the first three months of this year.

Source: Royal Jordanian