Royal Jordanian reverses its intention to stop operating to Munich
Mar 19, 2012 - Amman
On February 7, 2012, RJ announced its decision to stop operating to five of its destinations; Al Ain, Brussels and Munich as well as two other destinations in the Gulf not yet announced.
This decision was part of the airline’s intensive actions to reduce the operating costs raised by soaring fuel prices and to offset the decline in tourism as a result of the political situation in the region
Hussein Dabbas, the RJ president, said that the decision to keep Munich on the route network is due to restudying the pattern of RJ’s operation to Frankfurt and Munich as well as the assistance provided by Munich Airport.
Mr. Dabbas added that 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 stressed that 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 a drop in tourism.
He pointed out that there is always a chance to resume operations to any of the suspended destinations when conditions improve and demand on travel grows in the future.
Dabbas called upon the passengers-wishing to book their flights to Munich- to contact the RJ Call Centre.
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, was noticed at all destinations last year. RJ witnessed a drop of 124,000 passengers on its European routes in 2011 compared with 2010. The drop in passenger numbers forced the airline to cancel around 1,300 flights in 2011 and over 550 flights in the first three months of this year.
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