Royal Jordanian is currently undergoing an impressive fleet modernization and expansion. When it comes to wide body jets, the airline currently has seven Boeing 787-8s, and it plans to acquire six more Boeing 787-9s in the coming years, which basically doubles long haul capacity.
So, what exactly does the oneworld carrier have planned? We now have a sense of what to expect.
In this post:
Royal Jordanian outlines expansion plans
@IshrionA reports on how in a presentation, Royal Jordanian outlined its planned long haul expansion over the coming years. For context, in North America, Royal Jordanian currently serves Chicago (ORD), Detroit (DTW), Montreal (YUL), New York (JFK), and Toronto (YYZ). The airline also recently announced plans to add flights to Washington (IAD).
So, what else is on the horizon?
- Royal Jordanian plans to fly from Amman (AMM) to Dallas (DFW) starting in 2025
- Royal Jordanian plans to fly from Amman (AMM) to Miami (MIA) starting in 2026
- Royal Jordanian plans to fly from Amman (AMM) to Los Angeles (LAX) starting in 2028
Now, it’s anyone’s guess if these routes come to fruition, but that’s the plan as of now. What other markets is the airline considering, outside of North America?
- In 2025, Royal Jordanian wants to expand to Delhi (DEL) and Mumbai (BOM)
- In 2026, Royal Jordanian wants to expand to Beijing (PEK) and Dublin (DUB)
- In 2027, Royal Jordanian wants to expand to Birmingham (BHX) and Seoul (ICN)
Royal Jordanian’s expansion seems pretty predictable
At least in North America, Royal Jordanian’s expansion plans are almost exactly what you’d expect. Royal Jordanian is in the oneworld alliance, so adding service to Dallas, Miami, and Los Angeles, makes sense in terms of connectivity. A few thoughts:
- Dallas is a big market in and of itself, and on top of that, it’s American’s biggest hub, so this will offer one-stop service to all kinds of destinations Royal Jordanian can’t currently provide easy access to
- Miami is an interesting one; obviously it’s a market that has grown in recent years, though the most efficient connectivity would be to Latin America, and transiting the US isn’t always the best option
- I get the appeal in wanting to fly to Los Angeles, but Amman to Los Angeles is a really long route, and I question if the economics of that will work
But anyway, given Royal Jordanian’s existing markets, I don’t think there are any surprises here. The closest to a surprise would be that Boston isn’t on the list, but aside from that, it seems logical enough.
Bottom line
With Royal Jordanian greatly expanding its fleet, the airline has revealed what it plans to do with all of these new planes. In addition to the new Washington route launching in 2025, Royal Jordanian’s planned North American expansion includes Dallas flights in 2025, Miami flights in 2026, and Los Angeles flights in 2028.
What do you make of Royal Jordanian’s planned expansion?
LA definitely makes sense, there’s a decent sized Palestinian community there and a lot of Palestinians visiting family like to enter the West Bank through the Allenby bridge via Jordan. MIA and DFW are both one world hubs with decent sized middle eastern populations as well
LA does not have a large terrorist community, the terrorists are mainly in Detroit.
Zio Bill you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide.
A typically disgraceful comment from a Ziofascist. Get in the bin.
@ConcordeLadyBoy is on a roll today...you go guuuurl!
Facts.
One of the most delusional posters here.
I see 0 delusion in his below comments. Were some removed ?
And even if there was. How does that earn him a transphobic moniker ?
Maybe you guys got burnt by his direct factual style. For what ever reason you decided, alone, that this was an attack on your manhood and you decided that negating his was the best way to protect yours ?
But for anything to require protection, that anything would have had to be under attack and to pre-exist. Obviously neither was or did.
Nope. One's just butthurt over not being able to figure out basic block-quotes that take 2seconds to type, the other is just... weird. Neither is of consequence, no need for concern.
The irony being you are the one that can't figure out blockquote formatting hence your blockquote explosion paired with constant verbal diarrhea.
Feminising someone who identifies as male to denigrate him is misogyny pure and simple. So much to unpack in using 'ladyboy' in this way.
I'm just gonna pull a ConcordeBoy and use his own direct quote and say this about his comments below (and in general): "know that very little of this is factual"
what did he say that is not true here
Great. Yet another plane load of tourists lining up in the 2 mile queue at TB arrivals customs every afternoon.
LAX makes sense. 12% of LA county is Arab. Wealthy Arabs. Alot of connecting traffic will develop over AMM to India.
There is insatiable demand between DFW / LAX to India....they are just tapping into the market that has zero bounds. MIA will be a popular destination; and they can pick up Central and Northern South American traffic.
You're misreading that statistic.
L.A. county is home to 12% (approx 45,000) of California's Arabs.... not 12% of the county's ~10million person population.
Maybe. But not sure what would make them more compelling than transiting DXB/DOH/SFO/JFK/EWR/YYZ/YVR/LHR/CDG/AMS/FRA/IST/ZRH/WAW/HKG/SIN/ICN or the zillion other 1stop options that already exist here.
Does anyone know how well Royal Jordanian's business is doing these days?
I can't imagine they're exactly a thriving market for tourism and I don't see how they win on the connecting game either.
I constantly see tons of RJ seats available for rewards on Alaska all year round.
Miami is a much larger market to the Levantine than Boston is. Royal Jordanian flew to both LAX and MIA in the late 80s/early 90s via Vienna.
DFW area has been gaining a huge Middle Eastern population over the past 10-12 years or so. It was only a matter of time that another Gulf airline would start service to DFW after EK, QR, TK.
Royal Jordanian isn't a "Gulf airline"...neither is Turkish for that matter.
@Julia...semantics. It's about hub to hub connectivity in the region. And AMM and IST are in the region.
I guess there are two ways to classify middle east carriers: access to cheap fuel and willingness to be a global hub.
RJ is a "no" to both. Which makes it quite different from most carriers in the region
It somewhat resembles El Al in that matter, except El Al caters to a massive diaspora where RJ's interests are mostly tourism. I'm not clear if the fertilizer mining industry (potash/phosphate) would be a...
I guess there are two ways to classify middle east carriers: access to cheap fuel and willingness to be a global hub.
RJ is a "no" to both. Which makes it quite different from most carriers in the region
It somewhat resembles El Al in that matter, except El Al caters to a massive diaspora where RJ's interests are mostly tourism. I'm not clear if the fertilizer mining industry (potash/phosphate) would be a driver of business travel towards the US?
Maybe RJ's closest carrier is Lebanon's MEA, which has more diaspora and less tourism and is mostly a regional carrier.
Maybe RJ's expansion is mostly a vanity project ?
No, it isn't semantics, it's like saying Belgium is a Nordic country.
Royal Jordanian will be at a disadvantage at LAX, compared to the three other Middle Eastern airlines that serve LAX (Turkish, Emirates, and Qatar). The other three serve Iran, and get lots of connecting passengers from the large Iranian population in LA. RJ doesn’t fly to Iran. Also, the other three airlines have far more flights to the Indian Subcontinent, and a lot of LA passengers on those three carriers fly to the Subcontinent.
LAX has service from 5 Middle Eastern airlines:
Emirates, Qatar, Turkish, Saudia, and El Al.
The US routes make sense just because of AA hubs plus market density of LAX, though MIA seems an odd fit...I would have thought PHL a better fit.
Yep, American hubs... which explains why Boston isn't on the list of priorities
Miami is a large local market to the Middle East, Philadelphia isn’t even one fourth the size.
Hi Simon, my PHL reference was about connectivity, not local market. Hubs are about connectivity, no?
PHL and MIA catchments are almost the same exact population size. I don’t have any thought on whether or not PHL has 25% the Middle East population but that seems drastic.
Not talking about catchment talking about local market size. Miami is a massively larger travel market to the Middle East than Philadelphia.
Folks... these services are to align with AA hubs and connectivity, which is why I wonder about PHL v MIA. Potential exception of DTW and YYZ/YUL, no other single North American market has enough traffic to AMM (inclusive also Lebanon) alone. And get real, you think there's enough connecting traffic from Latin America to Jordan via the AA MIA hub?
You grossly underestimate the size of the local market in Miami. The beyond Miami connections are irrelevant. The beyond Amman are much more important. The fifth largest U.S.-Middle East local market is Miami.
RJ used to fly to Los Angeles with L1011 Tristars.
The flight was one stop svc via Vienna:
LAX-VIE-AMM
And Miami was flown via Vienna with A310s.