‘Air bridge’ welcomes Jordan-France tourism

AMMAN — Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) on Tuesday welcomed the first chartered plane carrying 179 French tourists, marking the launch of an “air bridge” linking Amman with Lyon, Paris and Toulouse.

This tourism “air bridge”, the first of its kind, is the result of the Jordan Tourism Board's (JTB) efforts towards attracting low-cost regular and transit flights from various countries to QAIA and King Hussein Airport in Aqaba, JTB Managing Director Abed Al Razzaq Arabiyat was quoted as saying in a  JTB statement on Wednesday.

The board is working on attracting more direct flights to Amman and Aqaba, which serve as gateways to the Kingdom's tourist and archaeological sites, he added, noting that such tourist trips would increase the number of arrivals from France, as well as other EU countries.

Arabiyat expressed the JTB's keenness to create "healthy" competitiveness in aviation industry in the direction of economic prosperity through attracting new investments and promoting the Jordanian tourism market.

Touching on tourism revitalisation, Fadi Abu Arish, CEO of Althuraya Travel, a company established in 1998, said that the number of French visitors are expected to contribute 20 per cent of the total number of arrivals to the Kingdom, according to the statement.

Abu Arish added that the company will organise two seven-day trips per week through Amman and Aqaba airports.