Syria war drives MEA-Royal Jordanian agreement

The Middle East Airlines (MEA) signed a codeshare agreement with Jordan’s national flag carrier, the Royal Jordanian (RJ).

The agreement’s reciprocal implementation, which began on September 22, will allow MEA to place its code on RJ-operated flights between Amman and Beirut, and vice versa.
MEA Chairman Mohamad Hout said: “This agreement opens to MEA passengers all of RJ’s travel destinations and vice versa.”

RJ will cancel two daily flights out of four between Amman and Beirut, as part of the company’s plan to restructure its route network, as of October 25. RJ Chairman Nasser Lozi said that the airline had to change the route of its operations between Amman and Beirut to avoid flying into Syrian airspace, adding costs to the operation of this route. Several airlines have stopped rerouted away from Syrian airspace due to the raging war there, except for MEA. RJ flights from Amman to Beirut now head to southern Jordan, into the Egyptian airspace, and then over the Mediterranean Sea before landing in Beirut. As a result, the duration of the Amman-Beirut flight has increased from one hour to one hour and 45 minutes, each way.

According to the agreement, a seat can be purchased on each airline through the other. RJ passengers may choose among three more daily flights between Amman and Beirut operated by MEA, in addition to the RJ existing daily flights to Beirut.

Beirut was RJ’s first destination when it began operations in 1963. MEA has codeshare agreements with Air France, Aeroflot, Air Canada, and Etihad Airways among others.