ROYAL Jordanian (RJ) has decided to reverse its intention to suspend operations to Munich which was supposed to be closed for sales as of April 19. On February 7, Royal Jordanian announced its decision to stop operating to five of its destinations; they are Munich, Brussels, Al Ain and to two other destinations in the Gulf area, not yet announced.

This decision came under the airline’s intensive actions to reduce the operating costs brought up by the soaring fuel prices and to offset the decline in tourism to the region, the outcome of the political unrest.

Hussein Dabbas, Royal Jordanian president, said that the decision to keep Munich on the route network is due to restudying the pattern of its operation to Frankfurt and Munich as well as taking into consideration the assistance provided by Munich Airport. He added that the operation would consist of two Munich frequencies. The service includes running one weekly direct flight from Amman to Munich and another combined with the service from Amman to Frankfurt. Royal Jordanian operates another five weekly direct flights to Frankfurt.

Dabbas stressed that Royal Jordanian’s decision to suspend operations and reduce frequencies aims at confronting the challenges of high fuel prices and regression on tourism.

He pointed out that there is always a chance to resume operations to any of the mentioned cities when conditions improve and demand on travel grows in the future.

The Royal Jordanian fuel bill reached JD293 million ($413 million) in 2011, compared to JD203 million ($286 million) in 2010, marking a 44 per cent increase, leading to about 20 per cent growth in the overall operational cost of the company.

Royal Jordanian saw an operational loss of 124,000 passengers from the European continent. The drop forced the airline to cancel around 1,300 flights in 2011 and over 550 flights in the first three months of 2012.