Royal Jordanian aims to be Middle East's top airline
Royal Jordanian Airlines’ new president and chief executive, Hussein Dabbas, is maintaining the carrier’s long-held ambition to become the Middle East’s ai

Royal Jordanian Airlines’ new president and chief executive, Hussein Dabbas, is maintaining the carrier’s long-held ambition to become the Middle East’s airline of choice. After 30 years in the airline’s marketing and sales organization, Dabbas brings contrasting experience to that of his predecessor, Samer Majali, an aeronautical engineer who left Royal Jordanian abruptly four months ago to lead troubled Bahrain carrier Gulf Air.

Majali developed frequent regional schedules using Embraer E175s and E195s and Airbus narrowbodies to feed long-haul A310 and A340 flights through its Amman base to combat competition from new flagcarriers in the Gulf. Operating medium- and long-range flights principally to Europe and North America, Royal Jordanian has essentially dropped flights to Asia and uses the Amman hub to feed more than 50 points across the Middle East and the Gulf.