Jordan Times
Monday, March 27, 2000
Lufthansa to move regional office to Amman
By Tareq Ayyoub
AMMAN — Lufthansa German Airlines will increase its weekly flights from three to seven due to the increase of passengers to and from Amman, a company official announced on Sunday.
John Nielson, Lufthansa regional manager to Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, also announced Lufthansa's plan to relocate its regional office from Damascus to Amman as of May 1.
“Over the last few years, we have enjoyed sustained growth of our in-bound and out-bound services to Jordan and our numerous destinations worldwide,” Nielson said at the press conference.
“We are delighted to meet the increased demand by moving our regional office to Amman,” he added.
Nielson said that the introduction of a daily non-stop flight from Amman to Frankfurt reflects the on-going demand from our Jordanian customers.
He indicated that North America and European destinations are very popular with travellers from Jordan, “at all times, more so in the summer.”
Nielson said that Lufthansa will switch its services on routes to Africa and the Middle East from Airbus A300 to A340.
Flights to Damascus will be discontinued due to negative economic factors. Five flights will be operated to Beirut.
The change of frequency also marks the start of Lufthansa's summer schedule. The airlines operates flights to 340 destinations in 91 countries.
Lufthansa figures showed that the number of passengers from Jordan increased by 45 per cent in 1999 while passengers to Amman jumped by 40 per cent.
“The number of passengers who used Lufthansa from Amman in the first two months of this year has increased by 22 per cent compared to the same period of the previous year while the number of passengers who arrived to Amman by Lufthansa increased by 7 per cent,” Nielson said.
Lufthansa Group has recorded DM1.9 billion as pre-tax profits while its operational revenues amounted to DM1.3 billion, Nielson said.
“Lufthansa operates a fleet of 226 aircraft and ranked second according to 1999 figures,” he added.