Royal Jordanian, the kingdom's national carrier, has announced plans to launch its direct cargo flights to Frankfurt from its hub in Amman starting from Sunday (April 7).

Initially, the airline will run one flight weekly. At the beginning of May, RJ will add another flight per week, and plans to take the total number of flights to three in 2014.

VP Cargo sales and services Muath Majali said the feasibility study RJ conducted for the German market revealed the importance of a cargo route connecting Amman and Frankfurt.

He stressed that the route will support Jordanian exports of fruits, vegetables and medicine to the German market. It is also bound to support the national economy by stimulating co-operation and understanding partnerships between Jordan and Germany, in addition to boosting the trade volume between them.

"This route will enhance the movement of transit cargo destined for Germany via Amman, coming mainly from Hong Kong, Bangkok, Colombo, Delhi and the Gulf region on RJ passengers’ aircraft," remarked Majali.

"This cargo service between Jordan and Germany will also serve German exports, including car spare parts, construction tools, industrial and printing equipment and industrial kits to Jordan and the region, in addition to the Far East," he added.

According to Majali, Frankfurt will be a cargo hub for Royal Jordanian in Central Europe, in addition to the airline’s two other hubs in Europe: Maastricht and Vienna.

He said that adding this destination to the airline’s cargo route network will help increase the total earnings from freighting services, which reached JD74.5 million ($104.8 million) last year, amounting to 9 per cent of the total revenues of the company — JD802 million in 2012.

Majali revealed that the airline alos plans to operate a regular cargo route between Amman and Mumbai early next year in order to transport Indian goods to Amman and from there on to Frankfurt.

Royal Jordanian, said the official, has dedicated two A310 freighters to serve its cargo short- and medium-haul routes, with a capacity of 36 tons each.

The company transports around 55 per cent of its total cargo through its 31 passenger aircraft. The total cargo transported in 2012 weighed more than 54,000 tons, which helped the airline witness a 5 per cent increase in the cargo revenue last year over 2011, he added.

The airline’s cargo route network has eight destinations: London, Vienna, Athens, Larnaca, Algeria and Tel Aviv.

RJ operates one regular weekly flight to each destination, whereas it operates four weekly flights to Maastricht and two weekly flights to Baghdad, in addition to running charter flights to Erbil, Sulaymaniyah and other destinations around the world.-TradeArabia News Service