ALIA-ROYAL JORDANIAN
ALIA was named after the first born daughter of HRH King Hussein and the shareholder structure was as follows s : Jordan government 40%, Jordanian Airways 35% and private investors 25%. According to an article dated 21/11/1963 and published by “Flight Magazine”, the new airline intended to inaugurate within few month Convair 990 services (aircraft to be leased from Lebanese international Airways whose owners the Arida brothers were shareholders) from Amman to London via Rome (CV990), to Jeddah (both CV990 and DC7), to Kuwait (both CV990 and DC7), to Dhahran (only DC7), and services to Beirut, Nicosia, Baghdad, Cairo and Aqaba with both the DC7 and the HP Herald. The HP Herald of which 2 airframes were delivered to the Royal Jordanian Air Force and operated by ALIA and the DC7 were leased from L.I.A in the beginning but were purchased later. The DC7 were ex AA frames “flagship Canada “and “flagship Connecticut”).
First services, in 1963, were launched from Amman /Jerusalem to Beirut, Kuwait and Cairo. Jeddah joins the network in 1964 after the delivery of the 2nd DC7.
The first years of operations were marred by the crash of a Herald on April 10 1965 while operating an IT flight with the loss of all on board (50 passengers and 4 crew members). However the CV990 services were never materialized and ALIA opted for the Caravelle of which 3 frames were ordered.
The first Caravelle 10R “Amman “was delivered on 29/7/1965, the second one “Jerusalem” on 25/2 1966 and the last one “Bethlehem”(renamed later “Aqaba”) on 21/6/1968. The company was able to start services to Rome (1965), Paris (1966) and London (1966), the same year will see a link between Rome and Jerusalem.
JY-ACT "Jerusalem" Caravelle 10R" by Christian Volpati - Licensed under GFDL 1.2 via Wikimedia Commons.
ALIA joins IATA in 1966 but many changes would occur the following year 1967. 1967 constitutes a major turning point in the history of the company, the 6-day war will bring a major network change as Jerusalem will fall in the hands of the Hebrew state and all services to Kolundia airport will be terminated , coupled with the fact that both DC7 were destroyed during the war. In this effect, the Airline orders 2 Fokker F27 Mk200 to replace them. Athens will be introduced the same year and the company becomes a 100% government owned after the interests held by private investors were brought back. The Kuwaiti government gifted a DC6 of Trans Arabia Airways to ALIA until the delivery of its F.27.
Nicosia, Benghazi, Dhahran and Doha will be the new cities added to the network of ALIA in 1968. The 1968 summer timetable
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| ALIA summer 1968 timetable . Fm www.timetableimages.com/Bjorn larsson collection |
of the company presents the following route map and information.
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| ALIA summer 1968 ntework |
You can read more on the fascinating history of Royal Jordanian Airlines in this blog at the following links
Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper - copyright © Karl L. Swartz.
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