Royal Jordanian sees significant improvement in Q1 results

The airline was able to achieve a great qualitative leap by remarkably reducing the losses that are common to airlines in this period.

He said that in the first quarter of this year, a time when usually most airlines record seasonal losses due to lower demand on travel and tourism, RJ achieved significant improvement, reducing the losses to JD13.8 million against the JD26.3 million losses recorded in the first quarter of 2017. This positive result is due to the efforts exerted by the management and the staff, who changed marketing and sales strategies and launched continuous sales promotions, and took other initiatives to increase revenues and control costs.

Darwazeh added that this outstanding performance in the first quarter was the result of an increase in overall revenues, which reached JD143 million, an increase of JD16.6 million over the estimated budget and JD16.9 million over the first quarter of 2017. Revenues in all business segments witnessed a noticeable surge; revenues from passengers sales went up by 13%, cargo sales revenues by 18%, cargo warehouse revenues by 46% and online ticket sales revenues by 73%, he said. The revenues attained from the RJ-owned Tikram Airport Services Co. increased by 28%.

He also said that if RJ can keep the current momentum up until the end of this year, the airline will achieve an outstanding result even with the higher than expected fuel prices.

He stressed that the Board of Directors has full trust in the competency of RJ’s President/CEO Stefan Pichler, of the management team members and of all RJ staff in Jordan and abroad who, with team spirit, exert great efforts to RJ towards the profitability the company and its shareholders are expecting, to increase the national carrier’s competitiveness and to continuously improve the services offered to passengers on the ground and in the air.

Darwazeh commended RJ's management and employees for continuing to implement, transparently and with good governance, the vision the Board of Directors has for the company, presently and in the future, which enables it to be even more successful in offering services, in finance and in operations, and enhances its strategic national role of connecting Jordan to the world and, as a main pillar of the Jordanian air transport and tourism industry, in supporting the country’s economy.