Jordanian airline to make unprecedented stop at Israeli fair

Apart from Royal Jordanian, several other carriers, including Turkish Airlines, will also be taking part.

By ADAM GONN/THE MEDIA LINE
The national Jordanian airline will participate for the first time in an annual tourism fair taking place in Israel later this month.
The International Mediterranean Tourism Market, which labels itself as the largest travel market in the Eastern Mediterranean, will host Royal Jordanian in Tel Aviv in the second week of February.
“Jordan works on promoting itself as a tourism destination through a set of marketing activities that include advertising as well as online activities,” Zeina Rifai, from the Jordan Tourism Board, told The Media Line.
Rony Levin, customer relationship manager at Royal Jordanian’s office in Tel Aviv, told The Media Line this was the first year the airline had been invited to participate, formerly only Israeli airlines such as El-Al and IsrAir were represented.
He added that the airline had chosen to participate for the “publicity” and to make contact with “the industry people”, adding that it will be a way for people to “see our products, our fares and destinations.”       
“We mostly sell to the Far East and America,” he said regarding the main destinations of Royal Jordanian flights from Tel Aviv, adding that while the Tel-Aviv-Amman route was fairly rare, Thailand and Australia were especially popular.
According to Levin, few Israelis choose Royal Jordanian for flights to Europe.
When asked if Israelis and expatriates living in Israel take advantage of Royal Jordanian’s connections to destinations which have no direct flights to Israel, such as the Gulf region, he said that few “people can go there because of the passport,” adding that “usually it’s only business people, not tourists.”
Though many Gulf countries refuse entry to carriers of Israeli passports, some Israeli business people have reportedly entered using second passports.
Royal Jordanian was founded in 1963 under the name Alia following a decree by King Hussein, who named the airline after his wife. In 2007 the airline joined the Oneworld alliance, which includes carriers such as American Airlines, British Airways and Cathay Pacific.
In October 2009 the company made history when it operated an-all women crew headed by Captain Carol Rabadi and co-piloted by Hadeel Khamash on a flight between Athens and Amman.
Several other foreign airlines, mainly hailing from Eastern Europe, have also decided to set up stands at the fair.
A representative from the Turkish tourism board in Israel told The Media Line that Turkish Airlines, another major regional carrier that serves Israel, will also be taking part in the fair.