Oneworld member Royal Jordanian has decided to turn its focus for expansion towards Africa, as it faces traffic shortfalls in its traditional European and North American markets.
The Amman-based carrier will start services to Lagos, Nigeria's commercial centre, at the end of November, said president and chief executive Hussein Dabbas. He raised the possibility of serving the Nigerian city almost a year ago at the ISTAT conference in Munich, but the plan has now been confirmed.
Additionally, he said, Royal Jordanian is looking at the possibility of starting services to the Ghanaian, Kenyan and Ethiopian capitals of Accra, Nairobi and Addis Ababa, respectively, "in the near future". Studies have shown the feasibility of adding these cities to the route network and work is now underway to firm up the prospects.
The airline will use a 280-seat Airbus A330-200 on the Lagos run, although frequency has not yet been decided. If services to the three other African capitals go ahead, they will be served by Airbus A320s.
According to Dabbas, the new destinations will boost both Royal Jordanian's traffic and Jordan's tourism industry. The carrier hopes particularly to tap into the religious travel market. It believes that Christians from Africa will travel to Jordan to visit Christian holy sites, while Muslims will use Royal Jordanian's Amman hub for onward travel to Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
