Aviation companies’ losses exceeded JD200m in 2020 — CARC

AMMAN — Aviation companies in Jordan incurred losses exceeding JD200 million in 2020, Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission (CARC) Chief Commissioner Captain Haitham Misto said on Wednesday.

Misto, citing preliminary data received by the commission from aviation companies and operators of the Kingdom’s airports, said that these losses excluded those of operators that support the aviation sector, such as maintenance companies, training institutes and ground handling, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.  

Meanwhile, CARC official data showed a sharp decrease in the passenger movement through Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) by 93 per cent between March 17 and December 31, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the March-December period of 2020, some 532,000 passengers arrived in and departed from QAIA, while the airport operated a total of 9,426 inbound and outbound flights in the same period, compared with about 7,327,000 passengers and 64,977 flights in the same period of 2019, CARC data revealed.

As for air cargo, QAIA handled 49,701 tonnes last year, compared with 105,402, tonnes in 2019, marking a drop of about 53 per cent, Petra reported.

Meanwhile, CARC said that the airport saw a decrease in passenger traffic by 5 per cent between January 1 and March 16, 2020, as QAIA received about 1.52 million passengers, compared with some 1.60 million during the same period of 2019.