King's foresight leaves a right royal legacy

As a result, in 1966, he founded the Royal Jordanian Air Academy (RJAA) with a clear aim to help Jordanians develop the flying skills needed to sustain the demands of the country’s airline.

He went one step further and extended the reach of the academy to include technicians and engineers – vital knowledge that would keep the fleets in the air in the worst of times.

King Hussein’s legacy continues today. Now in private hands, the RJAA continues to welcome more student engineers and pilot cadets than any other training establishment in the Middle East .

Following recent changes in structure, RJAA has come together with the Queen Noor Civil Aviation College , which has responsibility for training air traffic controllers and other skilled professionals, to create a new aviation university.

RJAA’s public relations and student affairs manager, Khaled Al Oran, said the academy was continuing to offer a full service and currently has 1,000 technicians and engineers with 600 pilots attending.

The academy has been working with a Bahrain bank to provide funding to help pilots coming through the system as airlines are cutting back on recruitment and sponsored cadetships.

“We think we will be able to help 500 student pilots get funding over the next five years,” Al Oran said.

The academy has students from across the Middle East airlines, including from Algeria , Syria , Bahrain and Kuwait . The majority are from Jordan .

The relationship with sister company Arab Wings could see a development in training for business aviation – an initiative that will be warmly applauded by MEBAA, the Middle Eastern business aviation association.

RJAA offers a 24-month commercial pilot licence with instrument rating starting each April and October; it provides 28-month courses in avionics maintenance and electronic maintenance engineering, also both in April and October. It also offers aircraft dispatcher courses, which last 10 weeks.

The RJAA has invested in simulators and workshops for practical training and with a large fleet of aircraft the training engineers have plenty of opportunities to get hands-on experience.

“We have more than 3,500 graduates now working with major airlines,” Al Oran said.

Cadets get to fly Piper Warriors with glass cockpits as well as more complex piston aircraft. They use the Marka airbase, which has regular commercial, military and business aircraft movements going on, giving the pilots valuable experience of busy airspace.