Royal Jordanian (RJ), the national flag carrier, has decided to reverse its intention to suspend operations to Munich which was supposed to be closed for sales as of April 19.

On February 7, RJ announced its decision to stop operating to five of its destinations; they are Munich, Brussels, Al Ain and to two other destinations in the Gulf area, not yet announced.

This decision came under the airline’s intensive actions to reduce the operating costs brought up by the soaring fuel prices and to offset the decline in tourism to the region, the outcome of the political unrest.

Hussein Dabbas, RJ president, said that the decision to keep Munich on the route network is due to restudying the pattern of its operation to Frankfurt and Munich as well as taking into consideration the assistance provided by Munich Airport.

He 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 regression on tourism.

He pointed out that there is always a chance to resume operations to any of the mentioned cities 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 ($413 million) in 2011, compared to JD203 million in 2010, marking a 44 per cent increase, leading to about 20 per cent growth in the overall operational cost of the company.

A significant drop of tourists, mainly from Europe, could be noticed at all destinations; last year, RJ’s operational loss from the European continent amounted to 124,000 passengers. 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. – TradeArabia News Service