Royal Jordanian chief quits

AMMAN, Jordan — Royal Jordanian (RJ) CEO Hussein Dabbas submitted his resignation on Tuesday, saying it was time for a change in the country’s national carrier.

AMMAN, Jordan — Royal Jordanian (RJ) CEO Hussein Dabbas submitted his resignation on Tuesday, saying it was time for a change in the country’s national carrier.

Dabbas, who said his resignation will go into effect as of June 1st, told The Jordan Times over the phone on Tuesday that he would start a new job after the resignation, without elaborating on whether his new position would be in Jordan or abroad.

Dabbas began his tenure as CEO of RJ in 2009, according to RJ Spokesperson Basel Kilani.

Royal Jordanian, which cancelled more than 1,000 flights in 2011 due to low traffic in light of the so-called Arab Spring, incurred about JD58 million in losses in 2011.

Noting that RJ’s 2011 financial results were adversely affected due to a steady rise in fuel prices, Dabbas said in a statement earlier this year that the company’s fuel bill had reached JD293 million last year, compared to JD203 million in 2010, leading to an increase of about 20 per cent in its overall operational costs.

The political unrest that swept the Arab region last year has had a significant impact on Royal Jordanian and the region’s aviation industry in general, forcing the airline to close some of its routes, such as those to Tripoli and Benghazi, for several months.

At the same time, other routes experienced a noticeable decline in traffic, such as those to Tunis, Damascus, Aleppo, Sanaa, Aden, Bahrain, Cairo, Alexandria and Sharm El Sheikh, translating into the loss of hundreds of thousands of passengers.

Meanwhile, Dabbas denied media reports that plans were in the works to sell RJ to other airlines in the region.

“This is baseless,” Dabbas told The Jordan Times yesterday, acknowledging that he had said in an interview with an international news agency that RJ might consider selling shares, but stressing that this is not “definite”.

Earlier this month, local media reported that RJ had said a merger with a larger carrier was certain.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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