Fares Braizat

In a region where uncertainty often shapes travel decisions, reliability becomes more than an operational value. It becomes a national asset. This is where Royal Jordanian’s role is most clearly understood: not only as Jordan’s flag carrier, but as a strategic bridge between the Kingdom, the Levant, the wider region, and the world.

Royal Jordanian has long carried passengers, but today it is carrying a larger national purpose. It is repositioning itself as a tourism airline through the Discover Jordan Initiative: an active partner in marketing Jordan, expanding access to its destinations, and converting air connectivity into economic opportunity. This matters because tourism does not grow by promotion alone. It grows when visitors, tour operators, investors, conference organisers, pilgrimage groups, wellness travellers, and regional business communities have confidence that Jordan is reachable, connected, and ready.

The numbers suggest that this transformation is not cosmetic. Royal Jordanian carried more than 4.4 million passengers in 2025, an 18% year-on-year increase, while achieving a strong seat load factor of 81.5%. It also returned to profitability, recording a net profit of JD 21.5 million after a loss the previous year, with total revenues rising to JD 829.3 million. These are not merely corporate indicators; they are signals of a company regaining commercial discipline while serving a wider national function.

At moments when low-cost carriers treated Jordan as a seasonal calculation and quietly withdrew, Royal Jordanian continued to fly with the steadiness of a national institution, proving that reliability is not a marketing slogan but a commitment to country, traveller, and market alike.

This reliability is especially important for tourism. Every flight into Amman can become a journey onward to Petra, Wadi Rum, the Dead Sea, Jerash, Aqaba, the Baptism Site, Mount Nebo, Madaba, and the wider Jordanian story of faith, heritage, wellness, adventure, and hospitality. Under Royal Jordanian’s growth strategy, inbound tourists carried by the airline are expected to rise from around 900,000 in 2025 to 2 million by 2028, with a further target of 2.5 million by 2030. If achieved, this would make the airline one of Jordan’s most important instruments of tourism-led growth.

Royal Jordanian’s role is also regional. Amman is naturally placed to become a hub for the Levant, connecting Palestine, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon with Jordan and the wider world. The airline’s projected growth in connecting passengers, from around 1.5 million in 2025 to 3.5 million by 2028, reflects the strategic importance of building Amman as a practical aviation gateway for a region whose people, markets, families, and histories remain deeply intertwined.

This wider purpose is visible today as Royal Jordanian serves as the official carrier of the MENA Travel Market, held in Amman and bringing together more than 2,000 participants from across the world to market Jordan. This is more than sponsorship. It is a statement of strategic intent: Royal Jordanian is positioning itself as the airline partner of Jordan’s tourism ambition and as a serious player in regional travel-market connectivity.

The airline’s transformation is also taking place through fleet modernisation and network expansion. Its fleet is planned to grow from approximately 23 aircraft in 2022 to more than 40 aircraft by 2028, with new-generation Boeing 787s, Airbus A320neo family aircraft, and Embraer E2 aircraft reducing average fleet age and improving efficiency. New and planned routes across Europe, North America, the Gulf, Asia, and the Levant are not simply additions to a timetable; they are investments in market access.

This is why Jordan views Royal Jordanian not only as an airline, but as strategic economic infrastructure that should be nurtured. The company’s transformation is expected to generate an annual economic contribution of approximately USD 2.1 billion, representing around 4.3% of Jordan’s GDP. Few national companies have such a direct ability to influence tourism, trade, business mobility, investment confidence, diaspora connectivity, and the international visibility of the Kingdom.

Of course, purpose must be matched by performance. To succeed in this new phase, Royal Jordanian must continue to modernise, improve service quality, strengthen punctuality, build smart partnerships, and expand routes that support tourism, business, pilgrimage, conferences, and regional mobility. Public support and national investment should therefore be tied to clear performance goals, commercial discipline, and measurable contribution to Jordan’s growth.

Royal Jordanian’s future lies in combining reliability, transformation, and national value. It can be a dependable airline, a tourism airline, a Levant hub carrier, and a partner in Jordan’s economic growth. These are not separate missions. They are one coherent purpose: to keep Jordan connected, visible, and competitive.

Royal Jordanian is flying with multiple purposes. It carries passengers, but also confidence. It serves routes, but also markets. It connects cities, but also people, sectors, and possibilities. Above all, it helps Jordan tell the world: we are here, we are ready, and we are within reach.

Fares Braizat – Chairman NAMA Strategic Intelligence Solutions

fares@namasis.com