Royal Jordanian plans airline merger

Hussein Dabbas took over from Samer Majali in June, 2009

Royal Jordanian’s new CEO has said that the airline will merge with another carrier within the next two years, in order to expand and grow its operations.

Speaking to arabiansupplychain.com, RJ CEO Hussein Dabbas, who succeeded Samer Majali in June, said that because of the impact of the economy on the aviation market, consolidation was the only way forward for the airline.

“We need to merge with another airline in order to grow, and we will explore this option next year.”

Dabbas did not rule out the possibility of Royal Jordanian merging with a European airline.

“We would like to find an airline that fits our ambitions. It is too early to say and we would need to see which airlines would be interested, but we would consider merging with a European carrier.

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“In order to grow we need to create synergies, and share operational costs, such as fuel sharing and catering costs, etc.”

Although Dabbas was playing his cards close to his chest on the finer details of the merger plan, he did say that the airline would need to move fast on setting up a viable alliance with another carrier, as regional airlines were facing stiff competition from mergers that had occurred this year.

“Lufthansa is buying basically all of central Europe’s airlines and it will be a formidable competitor to all carriers in the Middle East.

“Consolidation is the future and we will use alliances as a means of facilitating travel.”