RJ says 2022 performance “relatively good”

RJ says 2022 performance “relatively good”

Ammon News - Chairman of Royal Jordanian (RJ) Sa'eed Darwazeh on Wednesday said the national carrier's performance in 2022 was "relatively good" across all operational aspects, despite significant challenges encountered by the airline.

Speaking at the opening of the company's annual general assembly, the RJ chairman cited several reasons why the flag carrier ended the past year on a sour note, despite making remarkable strides in operational business.

According to Darwazeh, the pandemic's long stay until the first quarter of 2022, its repercussions, rising global fuel prices, and the Ukraine-Russia war were major culprits behind the losses.

He highlighted that the surge in fuel prices caused the company to bleed out a whopping JD98 million dinars. This was a result of the average fuel prices skyrocketing by 69 percent, especially in the Kingdom, compared to the prices at foreign stations. The chairman noted that fuel costs form 50 percent of RJ's total variable operating costs.

He explicated that, in order to offset a portion of the pandemic-induced losses - which accounted for 67 percent of the cumulative losses - the government furnished the company with a sum of JD70 million, as payments imputed towards the capital increase.

Darwazah further asserted that the company is