Charter plane carrying 189 French tourists arrives in Aqaba

AMMAN — The first tourist charter plane carrying 189 French tourists on Wednesday landed at King Hussein International Airport (KHIA) in Aqaba, marking the start of a “tourist air bridge” for the 2023 season to attract French tourists to Jordan with the support of the Jordan Tourism Board (JTB).

Tourism Minister and JTB Chairman Makram Qaisi stressed the importance of French tourist arrivals to Jordan, adding that tours to tourist attractions and archaeological sites will support local tourism and increase the volume of economic revenue, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

JTB Director-General Abdulrazzaq Arabiat said that launching this “tourist route”, with an average of 14 trips until end of the current season, supports tourism to the Kingdom and affirms its recovery, referring to increasing tourist activity from charter flights.

He noted that his step came in light of JTB's efforts to attract charter, low-cost and regular flights from several countries directly to Aqaba airport, referring to the "fruitful" cooperation with the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA) and the airport.

Arabiat said that the Kingdom is scheduled to receive more charter flights in the coming days, indicating that the JTB is working to attract more flights to Amman and Aqaba directly.

He stressed JTB's keenness to enhance competitiveness in the aviation sector and harness this effort to stimulate the economy by attracting "significant" investments and stimulating tourism to Jordan, which are two "vital" factors for the prosperity of the Jordanian economy.