Guided by the late King Hussein's vision of a national carrier as Jordan's goodwill ambassador around the world, Royal Jordanian has grown to become one of the biggest airlines in the Middle East.

The airline, which took off in December 1963, is today gearing up for privatisation ahead of the adoption of an open-skies policy by Jordan.

In a bid to attract a new strategic partner, Royal Jordanian was earlier this year registered as a public shareholding company with a capital of 40 million Jordanian dinars ($56.8 million).

Royal Jordanian serves 48 destinations around the world from its efficient and convenient hub at Amman's Queen Alia International Airport where it offers travellers state-of-the-art facilities in two spacious passenger terminals linked by an extensive Duty Free shopping mall, and convenient inter-continental connections.

Last year, the airline carried 1.283 million passengers and 60,000 tonnes of cargo on its modern fleet of 16 aircraft which include Airbus 310s and 320s and Boeing 707 freighters.

About 90 per cent of the airline's staff are Jordanians and one in five are women including pilots and area managers, a spokesperson said, adding the first woman to pilot scheduled flights was Captaini Taghrid Akasheh in 1985.

The airline is taking part in the MTF.