Royal Jordanian Airline

Royal Jordanian is the national carrier of Jordan. Its chief international hub is located at Queen Alia International Airport (AMM), Amman. Royal Jordanian is a member of the Arab Air Carriers Organization and Oneworld, one of the global airline alliances. Currently, the airline operates scheduled daily as well as weekly international flights from its base hub, to a number of destinations, covering four continents. It holds the distinction of being awarded the 'Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation' for "Airline Turnaround of the Year 2006", on November 9, 2006. Explore the history and profile of Royal Jordanian Airlines, in the article.

History
Founded on December 9, 1963, Royal Jordanian Airlines started its operations on December 15, the same year. The airline was originally named as Alia or Aalya, denoting King Hussein's first child - Princess Alia. Initially, the airline flew to Kuwait City (Kuwait), Beirut (Lebanon) and Cairo (Egypt) from Amman, with its fleet of two Handley Page Dart Herald and a Douglas DC-7 aircrafts. The airline's service to Jeddah began in 1964, with the addition of another Douglas DC-7 aircraft to its fleet. However, after the destruction of the DC-7s by an Israeli air raid during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, they were replaced by two Fokker F-27 aircrafts.

Towards the end of the decade of 1960s, Royal Jordanian Airlines added new destinations to its route. These included Nicosia (Cyprus), Benghazi (Libya), Dhahran (Saudi Arabia), Doha (Qatar), Munich (Germany), Istanbul (Turkey) and Tehran (Iran). In 1971, Royal Jordanian entered jet age when it acquired two Boeing 707 aircrafts. This led to the initiation of services to Madrid (Spain), Copenhagen (Denmark) and Karachi (Pakistan). Later on, the airline included Manama (Bahrain), Dubai (UAE), Muscat (Oman), Rabat (Morocco), Geneva (Switzerland), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Baghdad (Iraq), Bangkok (Thailand), Vienna (Austria), Larnaca (Cyprus) replacing Nicosia, Damascus (Syria), New York City, Houston (USA), and Ras al-Khaimah (UAE) into its network of destinations.

The decade of 1990s saw further expansion in the services provided by Royal Jordanian Airlines, because it increased the number of destinations covered. The airline added Toronto (Canada), Colombo (Sri Lanka), Jakarta (Indonesia), Berlin (Germany), Mumbai (India), Milan (Italy) and Tel Aviv (Israel) to the network of the destinations covered. It became a code-sharing partner of the US carrier TWA. In 2001, Royal Jordanian was registered as a Public Shareholding Company with a capital of JD 40 Million and was re-christened as Alia - the Royal Jordanian Airline (Royal Jordanian), a public shareholding company. In 2007, the airline achieved another distinction of being the first Arab airline to join Oneworld, the global airlines alliance.

Destinations And Fleet
Royal Jordanian Airlines covers a number of destinations across four continents, which includes Asia, Europe, Africa and North America. In Asia, the airline flies to People's Republic of China, India (to Delhi and Mumbai), Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. The European countries covered by the airline are United Kingdom, Ukraine, Turkey, Switzerland, Spain, Russia, Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Germany, France, Cyprus, Belgium and Austria. In North America, the airline flies to Canada and United States. The fleet of Royal Jordanian Airlines consists of 30 aircrafts, namely Embraer E-195-200 AR, Embraer E-175, Airbus A340-600 Prestige, Airbus A340-200, Airbus A321-200, Airbus A320-200, Airbus A319-100 and Airbus A310-300.