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RJ™s general assembly holds its annual meeting and elects a new board of directors, chaired by Nasser Lozi

Apr 30, 2012 - Amman


The general assembly also elected a new board of directors for the coming four years. They are: Eng. Nasser Lozi and Senator Akel Biltaji representing the government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Eng. Abdel Rahman Al-Khatib representing the Social Security Corporation, Mr. Maher Najeeb Mikati representing the Mint Trading Middle East Limited, in addition to Dr. Marwan Awad, Mr. Shareef Al-Zubi, Mr. ‘Mohammed Ali’ Bdeir, Mr. Amr Bilbeisi and Mr. Samer Muasher.

After the meeting, the members of the new board held their first session, during which they elected Eng. Nasser Lozi as chairman of the board.

Nasser Lozi’s speech, which was distributed to the shareholders, included a review of 2011, the year of big challenges. During last year, the political turmoil that moved from one Arab country to another influenced the economies of the countries and harmed businesses to an unprecedented extent.

As a result, Lozi said, the demand for travel to and from Jordan and the region vastly regressed. In RJ case, most of its routes saw a drop in the demand for travel, particularly to destinations where instability prevailed, such as Libya, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain and others.

Lozi said that tourism from the conventional tourism markets in Europe and the Far East deteriorated in 2011 as well. RJ saw a clear drop in the number of European tourist groups; it lost around 125,000 European passengers.

The chairman of the board said that RJ, which witnessed a 15% to 20% growth in the number of passengers and revenues in past years, in 2011 saw only a 6.2% increase in the number of passengers, which led to a 7.5% growth in revenues and 3% growth in flight frequencies and flying hours. Despite these modest increases, the 19.4% increase in the operational expenses prevented the airline from registering net profits in 2011.

One other main reason for the negative results in 2011, added Lozi, was the 44% increase in fuel prices over 2010.

According to Lozi, RJ was capable of achieving positive operational results in spite of the obstacles; the revenues went up from JD685 million in 2010 to JD736 million in 2011. Also the number of passengers increased to 3,155,000, against 3 million passengers transported in 2010.

He said that the airline took several decisions in 2012 to overcome this difficult period and avoid unsatisfactory results. It decided to suspend operations to several destinations where, studies showed, demand was lowest.

The company, Lozi added, also decided to reduce frequencies to some stations, like Rome, Vienna, Zurich, Geneva, Amsterdam, Colombo and Khartoum.

RJ will continue to cancel flights if need be, depending on the volume of bookings to some destinations. Last year, 1,400 flights were cancelled; more than 500 were cancelled in the first three months of this year.

According to Lozi, the company is running a cost-control policy on all capital expenditures, in addition to having frozen recruitment. It is focusing on raising the employees’ productivity, increase revenues and reduce costs.

The chairman of the board expressed thanks and gratitude to President/CEO Hussein Dabbas who submitted his resignation as of June 1.

He commended Dabbas relentless efforts, dedication and loyalty to the company which attained many achievements during his tenure as chief executive despite all the difficulties that have faced the air transport industry during the last two years.

Dabbas talked about the major challenges that faced the airline last year. He expressed optimism that RJ will attain positive results by the end of this year, on account of the growing number of passengers in the first quarter of 2012.

The positive key indicators for the coming months, the company’s efforts to attract more passengers and the improvement in air and ground services will play a key role in the results of the company.

During the meeting, Lozi, Dabbas and Chief Finance Officer Ali Abuhijleh responded to the shareholders’ questions about the airline’s performance and plans.

At the end of the session, the general assembly approved the Board of Directors' financial report for 2011, its future plans and the financial statements. It also discharged the Board of Directors and chose Ernst and Young as RJ's auditor for 2012.

The Jordanian government owns 26% of the company shares, 10% by the Social Security Corporation, 3% by the Jordanian armed forces, and 19% by the Mint Trading Middle East Limited, whereas the remaining shares are owned by other Jordanian and non-Jordanian companies and individuals.

Today,70% of the shares are owned by Jordanians. Legally, the shares owned by Jordanians in RJ should be not less than 51% for the company to be able to enjoy the traffic rights arrived at after signing deals with other countries.

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