Royal Jordanian Airlines has decided to stop all its services to Mumbai and Delhi due to reduced demand on travel to these cities, aggressive growth of regional competition and increased operating costs.

The airline will stop operating to Mumbai on September 10 and to Delhi on October 31. It is also shutting down its Lagos route with effect from October 10. With the closure of the three destinations, the RJ routes will count 51.

Royal Jordanian Chairman of the Board/President and CEO, Nasser Lozi, said that the decision is part of a synchronised plan to turn around the airline covering operations and financial structure.

The move comes at a time whilst the airline is facing difficulties due to instability in the region and high fuel prices.

Lozi attributed the reason for stopping these flights to the reduced demand on travel from/to these cities due to the aggressive growth of regional competition and increased operating costs.

He added that with the closure of three destinations, the number of destinations that the airline has stopped this year to eight.

He said that the Royal Jordanian Airlines had suspended its flights to Alexandria, Colombo, Milan and Accra last April and May.

Regarding its fleet, Lozi said that the airline is awaiting the arrival of the Boeing 787s which will start joining the fleet in August this year. By year-end, the airline will be receiving five B787s.

Lozi also said that the airline had to suspend operations to seven stations in West Asia and North Africa due to security reasons in the region. They are: Damascus and Aleppo since more than two years, in addition to Tripoli, Benghazi, Misrata, Mosul and Tel Aviv.

He stressed that Royal Jordanian had suffered big losses in 2012 and 2013, as a result of suspending service to Damascus and Aleppo and also changing the route of its operations between Amman and Beirut.

The airline also witnessed losses in the past period of 2014 because of the uncontrolled suspension of these destinations.

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