Royal Jordanian

The airline was established on 9 December 1963 and started operations on 15 December 1963 after a royal decree by the late King Hussein. It was named Alia (or Aalya) after King Hussein's eldest child, Princess Alia bint Al Hussein of Jordan (born on 13 February 1956). It is a common misconception that the airline was named after the King's third wife, Queen Alia, whom King Hussein did not marry until 1972.

Alia (the Royal Jordanian Airline) started operations with two Handley Page Dart Heralds and a Douglas DC-7 aircraft, serving Kuwait City, Beirut and Cairo from Amman. In 1964, another DC-7 was added and service began to Jeddah. In 1965, Alia initiated service to Rome, its first destination in Europe. The progress made by the airline was threatened by an Israeli air raid during the 1967 Six-Day War when the DC-7 aircraft were destroyed. They were replaced by two Fokker F27 Friendship airliners.

In 1970, Alia got rid of the F27s and got Boeing 707 aircraft. Alia began flights to Frankfurt and Abu Dhabi. The 707s were delivered in 1971. In that year, flights began to Madrid, Copenhagen and Karachi. During the rest of the decade, Boeing 727s and Boeing 747s were added to the fleet. A catering department was established, and duty-free shops were opened at Amman airport. Services were added to destinations including Bahrain, Dubai, Muscat, Rabat, Geneva, Amsterdam, Baghdad, Bangkok, Vienna, Damascus, New York City, Houston, and Ras al-Khaimah.

In the 1980s, Tunis and Tripoli joined the route map, and Alia's IBM computer center was completed. Lockheed L-1011 Tristars, Airbus A310s and Airbus A320s joined the fleet. In 1986, Alia changed its name to Royal Jordanian. In November 1997, Royal Jordanian became a code-sharing partner with the US carrier Trans World Airlines and moved operations into the TWA Flight Center (Terminal 5) at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.^[3]

The first of Royal Jordanian's Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft (267-seat, two-class configuration) entered service in September 2014, initially linking Amman with Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.^[4] The 787 Dreamliner is Royal Jordanian's first Boeing aircraft since the 707s and 747s, and replaced the Airbus A340-200s which had nearly reached the end of their lives. The Dreamliners have also replaced the Airbus A330-200s as leases on those aircraft had expired. The Dreamliners are generally used on Royal Jordanian's Far East destinations and to London and North America.

Royal Jordanian codeshares with the following airlines:

• American Airlines
• British Airways
• Etihad Airways
• Gulf Air
• ITA Airways
• Malaysia Airlines
• Middle East Airlines
• Oman Air
• Qatar Airways
• Royal Air Maroc
• TAROM
• Turkish Airlines
• Sky Express (Greece)

As of September 2020, the Royal Jordanian fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Royal Jordanian previously operated the following aircraft types:

From 1963 to 1986, the original livery of Royal Jordanian Airlines consisted of a white fuselage with both red and gold cheatlines.

In December 1986, the airline changed its name from Alia Royal Jordanian Airlines to simply Royal Jordanian Airlines, which coincided the arrival of Airbus A310 and Airbus A320 airliners. The new livery consisted of a charcoal grey fuselage with the same red and gold cheatlines, similar to the earlier version. The tail consists of a golden crown with a red tip on the charcoal grey coloured aircraft tail.

Until 2009, Royal Jordanian had never had an aircraft painted in a special colour scheme. It announced at the 10th birthday celebrations in February 2009 of the airline alliance Oneworld that it would paint its new A319 due for delivery in late March in a special scheme, which would be based around the Oneworld name and logo. The aircraft, registration JY-AYP, has its fuselage painted white, with the tailfin and engines in normal Royal Jordanian colors. "A member of Oneworld" in prominent lettering is located at the front of the aircraft, with the usual title "Royal Jordanian" further back.

In October 2021, Royal Jordanian unveiled "Discover Petra" special livery on one of its Boeing 787 Dreamliners, registered JY-BAH.

A month later, in November 2021, the airline revealed an Airbus A321, JY-AYV, in its retro "Alia" livery. The aircraft's first flight in the new paint scheme was to London Heathrow.

• 
  An Airbus A310
• 
  An Airbus A319
• 
  An Airbus A330
• 
  A Boeing 747-200