Airport International Group (AIG), the Jordanian company responsible for the rehabilitation, expansion and operation of Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA), welcomed Iberia’s first flight to Amman from Madrid. The flight arrived at QAIA on Saturday July 3rd 2010 at 8:25 pm and the return flight departed Amman at 9:25pmthe same day.
Iberia, the national carrier of Spain, will operate a weekly Madrid-Amman flight every Saturday aboard its Airbus 319 aircraft during the summer season. Flights will be added to Royal Jordanian’s Code Share flights between the two capitals, as outlined by the OneWorld Alliance, of which both airlines are members.
“We are delighted to welcome Iberia first direct flight between Madrid and Amman as this will increase passenger traffic between Amman and Madrid. The addition of Iberia to the QAIA network supports our objective of further enhancing service levels between Jordan and the major European hubs.” said Mr. Curtis Grad, CEO of AIG.
Mr. Nayef Al-Fayez Managing Director of the Jordan Tourism Board said in this occasion: “The Spanish market is one of our most important markets. We are very happy that Iberia is now launching direct flights to Jordan and welcome this new addition that will increase the capacity of traffic to Jordan from Spain. Jordan and Spain have always enjoyed good relations and we look forward to future expansions.”
Last month, Iberia announced that it will be launching direct flights from Madrid to Amman. In addition, last year saw several airlines announcing new or additional flights to and from QAIA including Royal Jordanian, Austrian Airlines, Malev, Fly Dubai, Wataniya and Emirates; in addition to charter flights by Hamburg International, Air Mediterranee, Blue Panorama and Neosair.
The USD750 million rehabilitation and expansion works at QAIA are well underway, including the construction of a new state-of-the-art 100,000 square meter passenger terminal. AIG is a Jordanian company with private shareholding by Invest AD (Abu Dhabi, UAE), Noor Financial Investment Company (Kuwait), Edgo Group (Jordan), Joannou & Paraskevaides (Overseas) Limited (Cyprus), J&P-Avax (Greece) and Aéroports de Paris Management (France).
