www.gulfnews.com Jordan's Royal Jordanian airline will start this week direct flights to its fourth destination in Iraq to meet rising demand, its CEO said.
Chief Executive Officer Samer Majali said with the addition of two new direct flights from Monday to the northern city of Sulaimaniya, Royal Jordanian (RJ) will have 25 regular flights weekly serving Iraq which already cover Baghdad, Basra, and Arbil.
"This is to meet the increasing demand for travel between Jordan and Iraq in general and the growth in numbers of business travellers who are using Amman as a regional hub," Majali said.
Majali said passenger traffic on the carrier's Iraq flights saw a 40 per cent jump in first quarter of 2006 compared to the same period last year.
Last year passenger traffic saw a healthy 30 per cent growth to 64,952 travellers against 2004. "We are seeing healthy rise in our Iraq operations and there is a lot potential for further growth," Majali added.
Amman is a major logistics and business hub for neighbouring Iraq. RJ is the only foreign commercial carrier serving Iraq regularly and was the first to resume commercial flights in and out of Baghdad after the US led invasion of the country.
RJ, which the government hopes to sell up to 49 per cent to an interested financial investor by end of the year, has a major share of the commercial flights among a handful of airlines jetting in and out of Baghdad.
Industry executives say along with demand coming from Arab and Western contractors and businessmen along with aid workers in Iraq, air travel is also serving large Iraqi expatriate communities that have sprung up in several Arab cities. |