Royal Jordanian has inaugurated its direct flights to Madina with four weekly flights last Sunday (March 28). RJ President/CEO Hussein Dabbas said opening this route is an advantage to RJ passengers who wish to visit Saudi Arabia for Haj and Umrah. He pointed out that pilgrims normally wish to pass by Madina and visit Prophet Mohammed tomb and religious places before heading to Makkah to perform Haj and Umrah rites. He added that the route will be easier for pilgrims instead of reaching Madina via Jeddah airport or by land. He said the feasibility study the airline carried out shows that the service is bound to succeed in serving Jordanian passengers and transit passengers from all around the world who wish to visit Saudi Arabia via Amman. As a result of the strong demand on seat bookings even before running the route, the airline decided to increase the frequencies to Madina from two weekly to four flights a week. Sundays and Wednesdays the flight departs from Amman at 20:30 P.M. and arrives in Madina at 22:15 P.M. It flies from Madina at 23:00 P.M. and arrives in Amman at 12:45 A.M. next day. Tuesdays and Thursdays, the flight leaves Amman at 1:00 A.M. (after midnight) and arrives in Madina at 2:45 A.M. The flight from Madina departs at 6:30 A.M., arriving in Amman at 8:15 A.M. Dabbas said with the Madinah rout, RJ now operates 57 direct destinations around the world, in addition to other 750 points served by RJ partners in the oneworld airline alliance. The airline will also resume its operations to Kuala Lampur, Malaysia at the beginning of June this year. Studies are being conducted to open new routes such as Johannesburg, Tehran, Izmir, Luxor and Aswan.
