Royal Jordanian expands partnership with Austrian Airlines

Royal Jordanian and Austrian Airlines have increased operations between Amman and Vienna under the code-share agreement signed by the two airlines. Eight weekly flights are thus now operating between Jordan and Austria. Royal Jordanian and Austrian Airlines started operating four weekly scheduled flights between Amman and Vienna each, as of the beginning of June 2005. Further connecting flights via Amman and via Vienna will be operated, in view of the geographic importance of the two countries. Vice President/Commercial Hussein Dabbas said at a press conference held in Vienna: “For the last two decades, Royal Jordanian has had a distinguished relationship with Austrian Airlines. RJ used to operate all its North America flights via Vienna, in addition to the code-share agreement signed between RJ and OS several years ago, whereby Austrian Airlines resumed its operations to Amman at the beginning of June 2005, having halted its flights after Sept. 11, 2001.” Dabbas added that the growing RJ-OS partnership is in line with the two airlines’ plans of boosting operations between Jordan and Austria. “We believe that this partnership is strategic and we will work diligently on developing it for better services,” Dabbas said. This partnership will allow RJ passengers traveling to Vienna to continue their flight with OS to its destinations on the European continent, such as Stockholm and Copenhagen. Chief Commercial Officer of Austrian Airlines Josef E. Burger said: “By cooperating with our network partner, Royal Jordanian, we can offer passengers a significantly improved service not only between Austria and Jordan, but also between Europe and the Middle East region. In addition to Amman, Austrian Airlines’ network comprises several cities in the region, like, Aleppo, Beirut, Cairo, Damascus and Dubai.” Burger also pointed out that the Middle East is an important market, which made Austrian Airlines take the decision of expanding its network destinations in the region from seven to 10 and the weekly flights from 25 to 69 over the last four years. RJ first operated flights to Vienna in 1975. The Austrian capital is one of the most active destinations in Europe, to which RJ operates around 45 weekly flights using the A310 and A320. RJ has code-share agreements with a number of international airlines, such as America West Airlines, Gulf Air, Iberia, Cyprus Airways, Syrian Airlines, Aeroflot, Air Canada and Thai International, in addition to Austrian Airlines.