Royal Jordanian Airlines is returning to India after a decade as the West Asian country seeks to grow trade and tourism from India.

The airline will launch non-stop services from Amman to Mumbai and Delhi from April 17 and September 17 respectively. The routes will be served four times a week with Airbus A32ONeo aircraft. 

It last served India in 2015.

The new service to India comes as Jordan aims to widen source markets for inbound travel. While the country is popular among European and US tourists for religious and wellness tourism, recent tensions in the region have impacted inbound travel. Tourist arrivals in Jordan have dropped by over 6 per cent this year.

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Royal Jordanian Airlines is partnering with the local tourism board to tap outbound travel demand from India.

“India will be driver of our growth strategy in Asia,” said Karim Makhlouf, the airline’s chief commercial officer on Wednesday.

Makhlouf said the airline’s focus will largely be point to point traffic from India. Connecting traffic to Europe and US will be a bonus, he said.

“We are targeting 40,000 passengers from India in the first year and aim to grow traffic to 80,000 in the second year,” he said.

“India and Jordan have strong ties. We welcome Indian tourists to Jordan. People tend to stereotype entire West Asia as unsafe. However Jordan is a peaceful country. We are keen to grow trade and are looking for new investments in tourism and information technology sectors,” said Yousef Abdelghani, Jordan’s ambassador to India.