Royal Jordanian to decide on fleet renewal by year-end

Royal Jordanian Airlines aims to make a decision on the renewal of its regional and narrowbody fleets by the end of the year in support of a long-term strategic plan which envisions a near doubling of the operation. CE Samer Majali, who in April returned to helm the carrier he first took leadership of two decades ago, told FlightGlobal during the Arab Air Carriers Organization’s annual general meeting in Doha today that it recently issued a tender covering 30 regional and narrowbody aircraft. Around two-thirds of the aircraft are for replacement purposes. “The regional and narrowbody fleet is quite dated, so we want to accelerate that hopefully within the next five to seven years. We are trying to get to double our size, or close to that.” Cirium fleets data shows Royal Jordanian has 14 Airbus narrowbodies, with build dates largely ranging from 2005 to 2012. It also operates four Embraer 175/195 regional jets, which entered service in 2007 and 2008. “We are looking at regional jets and narrowbodies initially, and then we will get to the widebody aeroplanes down the line,” Majali says. “We issued an RFP about a month ago and we are expecting the responses during this month and we will do the evaluation and hopefully make a decision before the end of the year.” The launch of the new long-term business plan marks a return to the front foot for the Oneworld carrier, which faced a challenging market even before the global pandemic.<br/>