Royal Jordanian has reported a significant 236 per cent increase in net profit, registering JD21.4 million ($30 million) in net profit in the first nine months of the year, over the corresponding period of last year.
 
Suleiman Hafez, RJ’s chairman of the board of directors, expressed satisfaction with the company’s positive results. “This is a quantum leap in RJ’s journey in the current period, since air transportation is still affected by the instability in the neighbouring countries which negatively influences travel and tourism to Jordan and the Middle East. These results will help the company continue the current restructuring process,” he said.

Hafez said that the cost-control policy of the airline resulted in reducing the operating cost in the first nine months of this year by 22 per cent compared to the same period of last year. He mentioned that operating costs amounted to JD434 million ($609.8 million) against JD519 million ($729.2 million) in revenues last year, achieving a JD85 million ($119.4 million) gross profit with a rise of 95 per cent over the corresponding period of last year.

The chairman also noted that the fall in fuel prices this year contributed to a drop in expenses, while there was a key role to the operational efficiency being featured by closing a number of the network’s stations due to their weak feasibility and reducing the number of aircraft accordingly.

Furthermore, RJ shut down a number of its stations at the end of last year including Delhi, Mumbai, Colombo, Lagos, Accra, Milan, Alexandria and Al-Ain whilst opening up new markets in Tabuk (Saudi Arabia) and Najaf (Iraq).

RJ also reduced the number of its aircraft in sync with the needs of the route network, which is continuously being assessed, in line with the airline's strategies. Frequency of flights to certain destinations were increased in response to the greater demand on travel particularly in the peak seasons. For instance, the flights to Aqaba increased from 11 to 16 weekly, with changes to the schedule of flights to meet passengers’ needs.

Flights to eight destinations - are Damascus, Aleppo, Mosul, Tripoli, Benghazi, Misrata, Sanaa and Aden -are still halted due to security reasons.

“RJ owes its success to its employees’ capability and expertise, which helped it overcome difficulties throughout its history. The airline is constantly looking for new and promising opportunities to increase revenues, enhance its competitiveness in the air transport industry and improve its air and ground services in a way that enables it to run safe and seamless flights to the passengers' satisfaction,” Hafez said. – TradeArabia News Service