Sunday, September 14, 2008

This is Why You Should Stop Complaining About Royal Jordanian


I used to think that Royal Jordanian and Royal Wings were the only two Jordan-based airlines.
Apparently there are 5 other airlines based in Queen Alia Airport.
Let's talk about them:

1- Air Rum: They have 5 planes that travel to different countries in Africa and the Middle East.
They are blacklisted and banned from flying over the European Union because they operate below the essential safety levels.
Their website, however, mentions that they fly to Italy. I'm really hoping that the people updating their website aren't the same as those doing maintenance on their jets.

To tell how crazy this airline is, a pilot in 2005 faked an emergency landing in a Peruvian city just to allow the Gambian passengers on that flight to watch a football game Gambia was playing in Peru that night. Click here for details.

2- Teebah Airlines: A charter airlines owned by Iraqis, operating from Amman since 2004. Bought old planes from Delta Airlines. Another airline banned from flying over European Union soil because of sub-standard safety level. Its fleet consists of five jets.

3- Air Universal: This one is not banned anywhere, but somehow it ran out of air crafts!
Warning: the music on their website is ugly.

4- Jordan Aviation : this one seems to be better organized. It has service to different gulf countries, and it's not blacklisted !

5- Raya Jet: a private jet charter, looks fancy from inside.

6- Royal Wings: has one airbus that flies as far as Belgrade.

7- And of course, our lovely Royal Jordanian.

What's really bothering me is that the two blacklisted airlines are Sierra Leonan airlines. For some reason, the folks in Sierra Leone were welcomed to have their airlines based in Queen Alia airport in Amman, under Arab names like Teebah and Rum. That explains why they have flights to African countries where very few Jordanians are interested in flying to, like Niger and Benin.
(Addendum: Adoosh mentioned an 6th airlines, Royal Falcon which has unscheduled flights depending on demand. Currently they only fly to Baku, Azerbaijan)

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm with you... I think that I am only going to be trusting RJ

Even though my friend's flight was canceled yesterday. They might have had some repairs to do and apparently they just jerry-rigged it... for mid-flight the plane's left engine stopped working and they had to fly around for over an hour dumping fuel so that they could land again at Queen Alia Airport... and this is the only Jordanian airline I trust.
Looking past this story I have never had a problem with RJ.

Anonymous said...

HAHAHA ... wow Air Rum's website sucks!!! :-)

I never heard of any of these airlines except for today .. thanks for the info.

Adoosh said...

We have also a new airline called the Royal Falcon.
Here:
http://www.royalfalcon.com.jo/tabid/36/default.aspx

Ali Dahmash said...

Oh my Gosh, did you check the indoor pics of Air Rum in their news section!! Thanks for posting so we dont end up in any of these airlines!

Sharkooseh said...

ooh! nice :P
anyway i work with Jordan Aviation :D

Sharkooseh said...

about safety stuff, Jordan Aviation is one of the top ten in the world for safety,
and they don't have scheduled flights now, and they fly almost all over the world.
but i have yo say don't judge her now wait till 2010 :P

NasEr said...

thats called an eye opener ! thx for sharing ! !! :mozbahell:

Anonymous said...

The skies are going to jam soon. Air travel is just going to get less and less pleasant. Trains! Trains.....the Arab region needs a pan-Arab rail connecting cities :) how cool would that be? Also a very civilized mode of transport.

Hareega said...

Tim, I guess this incident can happen on aircrafts, RJ is hardly a wonderful airline but I believe it's very decent compared to most other airlines.

za3tar... you're welcome, yes most Jordanian blogs are more organized than their website

adoosh... thank you for the addition, will make an addendum

Ali, you're welcome man. Safety comes first so I'd rather fly on a parachutte than on one of these planes

Sharkoosheh, as I said it sseems like a decent airline, but these new airlines need some time to get a good reputation

Naser, you're welcome

Nadine.. flying is already much less pleasant than before. Not sure if you've flown inside the US but on some of these internal flights they are charging you for water and blankets, and for checking in any piece of luggage. People still prefer to fly because it's the fastest and safest way of transporation and in this world some people really have to be in different places in a very limited period of time. Some people fly every single day of work. A lot of people also fly every week.

Anonymous said...

THANX 3al info.
i hate RJ :@ coz mara 5alloni astanna 6 sa3at jwa el gate bedoon ma ysma7olna n6la3 nshtri may aw akel 7ata sha7en el mobile 5eles w ahli kteeer 5afo 3alay,w mara raja3oni w ma 5alloni asafer(ma3 enno mama kant btestanani w 3amletli wara2 3enab) meshan fe wara2a na2sa w 5awal baba yb3at.ha bel fax bas fax el ma6ar kan 5arban ..... so kol ma6ar el maleka Alya ZEFT ...
ps >> I like ur blog very much :)

Hareega said...

hey isra'a , thank you for checking the blog. The problem with RJ is that sometimes they do kistakes that many other airlines don't do and they don't feel guilty about it, they're not nice to theor customers and do not apologize for their mistakes as if they are paying you money instead of the opposite!

Hani Obaid said...

How bad is it if NOT being blacklisted is a plus!

Nadine, it would be very cool until someone blows up a train :(

Hareega said...

Hani, exactly ot until the train driver decides to start text-messagin others while driving and cause a crash killing 15 people like yesterday in LA

Devilstine™ said...

itssss uglyyyy!!!!!!! the music*

Hareega said...

yes it is, I warned you
I will assume the sound of their engines will be worse

Saned! said...

Still, this is no reason not to complain. RJ is also below international standards. In everything they do. I'm glad Delta launched the JFK-AMM direct flight. I'll give feedback after I try it this December.

Hareega said...

saned I hear you, honestly if I found another airline with a reasonable price to fly with I may choose it

Anonymous said...

found this veeery interesting news at air rum website

http://www.airrum.com/news.aspx?index=8

amazing.. axis of evil guys can make something out of this

Hareega said...

hehe looks like someone hacked their site and they didn't even realize it !!

asoom said...

I don't know about the other airlines but I've flown Royal Falcon to egypt. The hostesses were all wearing dress pants that were about 2 sizes too small so they looked like they were wearing spandex.

Hareega said...

WOW.... I will make sure I travel with air falcon next time.

Sam Ibrahim said...

Royal Jordanian is the worst company to fly with, NO ONE SHOULD FLY WITH THEM. This is my second time flying from NY to Amman and Egypt and they always lose your sure cases brake them , stolen items ETC. And there service is bad very rude people , And here i am trying to deal with my lost and stolen and broken items for over three months and the edits here at Cairo Airport AYMAN SHAWKI his name is a stupid guy that lies as all do and can't resolve a problem of a trashed sure cars where i paid in phone calls more than the refund . NEVER EVER FLY WITH THEM . I have seen there Captains and sat with one of them that had drinks till 3 am and flour his plane at 6 am from Amman to Lebanon How could that hapened only RJ . well the next time think 10 times and fly any company but not RJ and you can contact me at sam27664@msn.com we will be broadcasting on CNN a program about this mid June cost to cost in the USA and then world wide so RJ will know who I am and if they service they will know how to deal with customers and respect them.
AYMAN SHAWKI should be fiered now.