RJ wins the 2007 Airline Strategy Award

Airline Business presented its six awards to winners in the following categories: executive leadership, regional & low-cost leadership, finance, marketing, operations and technology.

President/CEO Samer Majali received the award at a gala dinner held in London. He said the Airline Business awards are a prestigious and high-status evaluation of international airlines. He pointed out that RJ is the first Arab and Middle Eastern airline to win this award, granted by the judging panel after a comprehensive assessment of airlines worldwide in all mentioned categories.

Majali added that RJ was nominated in recognition of its major overall transformation from an unprofitable carrier to a lucrative commercial enterprise through the deployment of modern technology solutions.

The several IT systems introduced and implemented in all corporate departments for the purpose of joining the oneworld airline alliance drew the attention of the Airline Strategy awards judges who bestowed the award on RJ, acknowledging its accomplishment in an atmosphere of sharp competition.

Head of Information Technology Department Ahamd Abu Ragheb, who was also present at the ceremony, said that a key judging criterion was the way in which technology had been integrated into the overall corporate strategy and used to support wider business goals, in addition to innovation and the application of new IT systems, including Internet technologies.

Abu Ragheb said that over the last 15 months, RJ introduced a number of new, modern IT systems that qualified it to join oneworld, such as: implementing the e-tickets on all RJ's inbound and outbound routes, signing agreements with tens of airlines to issue e-tickets, and automating the departure control system.

Other systems were introduced, the most significant being the frequent flyer program (CRANE), the revenue management system (PROS) and the revenue accounting system (Sirax).

The airline aims to make it easier for passengers to deal with all travel procedures by introducing systems, like Internet booking, Common Use Self Service check-in system (CUSS) and Bar Coded Boarding Passes (BCBP).

The winners of the 2007 Airline Strategy Awards were:

Executive Leadership - Jean-Cyril Spinetta, Chairman, Air France and Leo van Wijk, Chief Executive, KLM

Regional & Low Cost Leadership - Joe Leonard, Chief Executive, AirTran Airways

Finance - Cathay Pacific Airways

Marketing - Singapore Airlines

Operations - Jetstar

Technology - Royal Jordanian Airlines

Recently, Royal Jordanian won several world-class awards. It was awarded the Merit Award for the Airline Turnaround of the Year 2006, held by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) in Singapore. Air Transport World (ATW), the leading monthly magazine covering the global airline industry, presented RJ the Phoenix Award at the 2007 ATW Airline Industry Achievement Awards in Washington. RJ also won King Abdullah II Award for Excellence in the large service organizations category, and was awarded gold for the best website of an Arab carrier for 2007.