E2 Strategy by Royal Jordanian

The Middle East region has been described as the powerhouse of global aviation. Royal Jordanian is one of the leading carriers in the Middle East. We've been operating for the last 63 years and we reach points other carriers don't reach. Royal Jordanian is quite unique. In order to compete with these global carriers that carry huge volumes of transit passengers to long-range connections through the Gulf, Royal Jordanian has evolved a unique strategy in terms of deploying a very strong network reaching all primary and secondary points within the Levant region, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and southern Turkey, northern Egypt and connecting our passengers through the Amman hub onto our medium-range network and long-range network to North America and the Far East. For that, we need a very up-to-date, high-technology aeroplane, which is the Embraer E2. Royal Jordanian is really focusing on digitalization, on modernization and we are reducing our average age fleet from around 13 years, which was the case last year, to around 4 years, which we will have by next year. And the Embraer E2s helped us as the first new aircraft into the fleet to revamp completely our product. On the Embraer, we are around 85 pilots and thanks to the high commonality between the E1 and the E2, the transition training takes less than three days. The cockpit layout is designed for pilot comfort and situational awareness and the advanced avionics suite, the fly-by-wire system, the larger displays and intuitive FMS interface are really impressive, contributing to safety and operational efficiency. We are flying the E295 in a dual-class configuration with 120 seats, 12 business class and the rest economy. The E2 crown class makes traveling much more effortless. It's a class above, honestly, and it makes shorter flights feel more premium. It's modern, sleek and the seats are super comfortable. The E2 is an amazing new plane for short and middle haul flights. I love the fact that it's noise-free. You hardly hear anything inside the plane, which is amazing. And I love its comfort and the level of privacy that it provides to you as a passenger. This aircraft can fly up to six hours and we are using it in average to Europe sometimes on a four or five-hour flight. This helps to reduce the cost per trip by around 20% and to mature the routes faster. So in our case, obviously we have a lot of competition. And on the one hand you have the low-cost model, which is putting pressure on the unit revenues on the point-to-point. And this is forcing network carriers to increase productivity in terms of seat load factor and filling the flights. The Embraer as a small narrowbody is here perfect because it can compensate load factor deficiencies, for example, on routes where you have the A320neo and immediately improve the operational results. And the key is for us the trip cost and the cost per seat. The E2 is noticeably quieter and more fuel-efficient than previous models. These advancements support efficient operations while also improving comfort for both passengers and crew. The redesigned landing gear provides greater ground clearance and smoother landings. It also contributes to a lower maintenance cost and a greater reliability in diverse airport conditions. The biggest benefit of a small low-trip cost aeroplane like the Embraer E2 is actually the ability of RJ to raise frequency. So the secondary destinations, instead of using a narrow-bodied aeroplane four times a week to serve a destination, we use the Embraer E2 on a daily basis offering a better quality service to our passengers. Growing from 23 to 52 aircraft is very ambitious. In this context we opened already around 20 new routes in the last three years. And the E2 helps us to reduce the risk of every new route opening. In fact, Royal Jordanian Airlines for the first six months announced a record profit and obviously the E2 did its part for this profitability. I think Embraer is a unique aircraft manufacturer. Number one, it is very important for us to have Embraer because in a world where there is only Boeing and Airbus Embraer offers an alternative aeroplane that has a very strong application with Royal Jordanian itself. Our relationship with Embraer is very strong because they consider us as their partners within the region and we consider them as partners in the Royal Jordanian customer proposition.