RJ awarded 'Airline of the Year 2007' by Air Finance Journal

The journal published an extensive report including an analysis of the reasons RJ deserves the award which is given once a year to the most distinguished and financially efficient airline worldwide.

Upon receiving the award, President/CEO Samer Majali expressed the airline's pride on such success that adds up to various other prominent awards accumulated during the past two years.

The report points out that the achievements of the airline over the last few years were a polestar to all observers of the air transport industry.

At the end of 2007, the airline doubled its 2001 size in terms of number of passengers, financial revenues, flying hours, flights frequencies and others.

Additionally, since 2004, it has started to achieve net profits under hard operational circumstances and daunting challenges, foremost among them the instability in the Middle East and its effect on the air transport and tourism, the spiraling fuel prices and the sharp regional and international competition.

According to the report, RJ earned this title in appreciation of the success of the privatization process which saw 71% of the total issued share capital for the Initial Public Offering (IPO) floated in December last year.

The IPO witnessed great demand from the national and international investors without the need for a strategic partner.

The number of investors in RJ reached more than 29,000.

The IPO coverage amounted to 140% of the offered shares and JD164.5m of the total proceeds went to the country's Treasury.

By this, RJ is the first privatized national carrier in the Middle East.

Furthermore, the report mentioned that RJ was capable of overcoming hardships and thus received an invaluable international recognition through joining the oneworld airline alliance, as the first Middle Eastern carrier invited to its membership.

Getting into alliances with international airlines reflects the airline's capabilities, safety of operations and services, on a par with those of the other nine giants, members in oneworld.

All this opened much wider travel options to passengers and increased the regional and international network to 700 destinations, with only one stop in Amman.

Royal Jordanian was awarded a number of prestigious awards in the last two years, the most significant being Phoenix Award, presented by Air Transport World (ATW), the leading monthly magazine covering the global airline industry, and the Merit Award for the Airline Turnaround of the Year 2006, held by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) in Singapore.

It was also chosen the winner of the Airline Strategy Award in the technology category, organized by Airline Business magazine.

The airline also won King Abdullah II Award for Excellence in the large service organizations category.