Will RJ recover from crisis, restore its glory?

Royal Jordanian’s (RJ) general assembly held its annual meeting on April 29 at a time the company is passing through a serious crisis and facing many challenges, which are the reason for the company’s accumulated losses and inability to compete.

This, in turn, diminished its contribution to the national economy — even though there have been recurring promises to make a qualitative leap to help our only national airline regain its glory and reputation, which it enjoyed for many decades, and led to a diminished performance and poor results, caused by mismanagement and lack of planning and future vision.

All this affected the company’s structure — its administration, operation, finance, human resources, relations with suppliers, support companies and other concerned parties — and proved, to shareholders and the Jordanian public, a lack of clear vision and inability to take correct decisions that serve the company’s interests and push it forward towards success, particularly in regard to the unjustified number of employees.

Moreover, RJ signed contracts that served the interests of other companies or parties, not its own, which boards of directors did not even once review and which are still a secret.

No shareholder can see those contracts to know their duration or value — which is one of the reasons RJ’s resources were depleted and the company paralysed, and why its meagre revenues, if any, were wasted — nor could they see the galactic salaries given to employees categorised as experts but whose expertise, unfortunately, neither reflects positively on the company’s situation nor limits its losses or pushes it to adopt innovative plans.

Some members of the board of directors would even like to liquidate the company, while shareholders and Jordanian citizens do not see how that would positively affect the company’s situation, which keeps getting worse.

I have read what Prime Minister Hani Mulki said during a recent visit he made with the government’s economic team to RJ, and his bold talk on the challenges facing the company and the government’s readiness to help RJ face them.

Mulki confirmed that help will not be only financial, but will also take involve measures that help find solutions to the challenges, which makes me convinced that the government is serious about helping RJ overcome its current crisis, especially since the premier said the government realises the challenges facing the company, but also believes the problems can be solved through innovative thinking that helps it face problems realistically, especially the huge competitiveness in the airline industry.

This hope, spread by Mulki’s talk while visiting RJ headquarters and listening to officials there, should be the beginning of more transparent work and clarity of purpose, of creativity and boldness when looking at the future, to take RJ out of its current crisis.

It is, however, hard to hold back persisting important questions, all connected. 

One such question is: How could one person hold three positions in the company, like some rare genius?

Just like the director general, who is also the executive director and a member of the board of directors despite being over 65 years old.

I do not mean to offend him, this is merely an example of what is happening at RJ, where many incorrect, subjective decisions that serve narrow personal interests are taken, just like the contracts to rent planes for high prices despite the decrease in rent prices in the market, and despite knowing that other companies sign similar contracts for less money.

I wrote a lot about RJ out of anger and sadness inflicted on me, the biggest Jordanian shareholder in the national carrier, an investment I considered a national duty, before thinking of achieving revenues, but now I announce that I misjudged.

Still, I have not lost hope entirely after reading Mulki’s statements; at the same time, I respect the head and members of the Lower House’s transport committee, which follows RJ’s issues with high accuracy and seeks to end the crisis.

I also ask the general assembly to rise up to its responsibility and ask employees to either do their job or make room for those who can come up with solutions that can have a positive impact on people and bring advantages to the country and shareholders.

The writer is a Jordanian economist and investor. He contributed this article to The Jordan Times.