Cancidas From Poland, joined Jul 2003, 4112 posts, RR: 13 Posted (7 years 11 months 1 day 19 hours ago) and read 2397 times:
why does royal jordanian operate a few a/c in a pretty much all white scheme? are they temporary leases or is it a security measure in a hostile region?
"...cannot the kingdom of salvation take me home."
NYCFlyer From United States of America, joined Jan 2005, 1381 posts, RR: 10 Reply 5, posted (7 years 11 months 14 hours ago) and read 2063 times:
I have flown the white planes to and from Iraq. To restate what everyone else has said; yes, they are there for the extremely lucrative BGW flights. My guess is that that route singlehandedly keeps RJ in the black.
Cornish From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2005, 8187 posts, RR: 55 Reply 6, posted (7 years 11 months 14 hours ago) and read 2051 times:
Royal Jordanian uses an F100 into Baghdad from Amman. They are actually owned and operated by a South african company on behalf of RJ and fly in at night when it is safer.
My brother flies on it regularly.
Just when I thought I could see light at the end of the tunnel, it was some B*****d with a torch bringing me more work
NYCFlyer From United States of America, joined Jan 2005, 1381 posts, RR: 10 Reply 9, posted (7 years 11 months 12 hours ago) and read 1987 times:
Quoting Cornish (Reply 8): Are RJ flying themselves into Baghdad now?
No, they still use South Africans.
Quoting Cornish (Reply 6): They are actually owned and operated by a South african company on behalf of RJ and fly in at night when it is safer.
I don't know about the flying at night part. That was never my experience (Sept. 2003 - June 2004). All my AMM-BGW flights on RJ were morning or midday. Remember that the hair-raising drive on the BGW airport road into the city/Green Zone is more dangerous at night.
Re: the South Africans, yes, the whole crew is South African. The Jordanian gov. has stipulated that no Jordanian nationals may fly or work crew on a flight to Iraq due to security concerns. Ironic that no Jordanians are allowed on a plane w/RJ metal.
NYCFlyer From United States of America, joined Jan 2005, 1381 posts, RR: 10 Reply 12, posted (7 years 10 months 4 weeks 16 hours ago) and read 1603 times:
Quoting Spinkid (Reply 15): I noticed the plane parked at Baghdad was parked at gate C36. Are there really that many gates there?
just curious
There are many gates there. I can't give an exact number, but at least 40. BGW has three terminals, which are surprisingly modern and in very good condition (albeit mostly unused the last 15 years!).
The terminals are named for Iraqi historical sites - Babel, Nineveh, and I can't remember the third. The RJ albino flights would originate from these terminals. There would be 50 people on the flight, and you'd have an entire terminal to yourself!
Also, there is a duty free shop that does great business, as it (used to be) the only place where you can buy good alcohol in Baghdad. Beer is now available in the Green Zone, but I think you still need to go to the Iraq Duty Free for the hard stuff.
Quoting IRelayer (Reply 16): Oh! Do you actually not find that not that too funny Jcobin777?
What was the point of that?
Ignore Yak. He goes out of his way to hijack every Middle East-related thread and make it political, with his anti-Israeli, anti-American rants. Ignore him.
Djw030468 From United States of America, joined Aug 2005, 50 posts, RR: 0 Reply 13, posted (7 years 10 months 2 weeks 2 days 7 hours ago) and read 1493 times:
Quoting Cornish (Reply 6): USER PROFILESEND INSTANT MSGADD TO RESP USERSSUGGEST DELETIONQUOTE SELECTED TEXT
Cornish From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2005, 2158 posts, RR: 31
Reply 6, posted Tue Jul 26 2005 10:46:22 UTC+2 and read 560 times:
Royal Jordanian uses an F100 into Baghdad from Amman. They are actually owned and operated by a South african company on behalf of RJ and fly in at night when it is safer.
The RJ flights usually depart Amman early morning and mid-afternoon. They never fly at night due to security and or nav restrictions.
Brokenrecord From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 772 posts, RR: 0 Reply 14, posted (7 years 10 months 2 weeks 2 days 7 hours ago) and read 1473 times:
Why would one want to fly commercially to BGW? Most contractors and such can get to the country on US military transports which in my opinion are much safer.
NYCFlyer From United States of America, joined Jan 2005, 1381 posts, RR: 10 Reply 15, posted (7 years 10 months 2 weeks 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 1335 times:
Quoting Brokenrecord (Reply 19): Why would one want to fly commercially to BGW? Most contractors and such can get to the country on US military transports which in my opinion are much safer.
Not so. The biggest contractors can access the military flights (Halliburton, Bechtel, etc.) but most of the little guys, which is the majority of contractors, fly commercial. Also, the contractors get low priority on the mil flights, so they're the first off the list if space is tight. Plenty of journalists and Iraqis use the flights to AMM as well. Many from the coalition governments use those flights as well, because the military transports that are available for coalition civilians, only go to KWI (some to DOH).
Also, AMM is a hugely important destination. There's lots of Iraq-related business in AMM, more than anywhere else in the region, so AMM is very popular for contractors and gov. people in Iraq. Even if you can hop a mil flight to KWI, you still have to wait, often overnight, for a connection to AMM. Why do that if you can fly nonstop to AMM on RJ.
The flights are always packed.
Quoting Viasa (Reply 7): But RJ has also two A321 in "albino" colors - there are leased.
I'd be interested to hear more about these. I have no idea what these are used for. Certainly not for Iraq. At least to my knowledge.
Brokenrecord From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 772 posts, RR: 0 Reply 16, posted (7 years 10 months 2 weeks 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 1315 times:
Quoting NYCFlyer (Reply 20): Not so. The biggest contractors can access the military flights (Halliburton, Bechtel, etc.) but most of the little guys, which is the majority of contractors, fly commercial. Also, the contractors get low priority on the mil flights, so they're the first off the list if space is tight. Plenty of journalists and Iraqis use the flights to AMM as well. Many from the coalition governments use those flights as well, because the military transports that are available for coalition civilians, only go to KWI (some to DOH).
Also, AMM is a hugely important destination. There's lots of Iraq-related business in AMM, more than anywhere else in the region, so AMM is very popular for contractors and gov. people in Iraq. Even if you can hop a mil flight to KWI, you still have to wait, often overnight, for a connection to AMM. Why do that if you can fly nonstop to AMM on RJ.
The flights are always packed.
I'm from a small contractor, and I had the ability to fly mil flights anywhere in the region when I was there. Yes, I did have to wait a few days to catch a flight, but it was free.
Sleak76 From Kuwait, joined Nov 2000, 345 posts, RR: 2 Reply 17, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 2 days 5 hours ago) and read 1143 times:
Quoting NYCFlyer (Reply 15): There's lots of Iraq-related business in AMM, more than anywhere else in the region, so AMM is very popular for contractors and gov. people in Iraq. Even if you can hop a mil flight to KWI, you still have to wait, often overnight, for a connection to AMM. Why do that if you can fly nonstop to AMM on RJ.
Those who come to KWI are those who require quick and direct access to Basra (approx 150km/90mi to the north of KWI). AMM is quite accessible to Baghdad whereas KWI is used for Southern Iraq access and contractors needing Basra business. Commercial flights into KWI are packed partly due to this reason.
Hodja From Singapore, joined Apr 2004, 91 posts, RR: 0 Reply 18, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 2 days 4 hours ago) and read 1105 times:
Pardon the curious question, but how in fact does one interface to the RJ flights out of BGW?
So I guess the flights are operated by RJ, but can anyone actually just go ahead and buy a ticket and get access to the airport?
I didn't even think they allowed bona fide commercial operations.
I mean, isn't the airport road outright deadly to travel these days? And there's only a single road to the airport, right? Are any civilians actually braving the trek regardless of the danger???
Or maybe the media is just exaggerating the conditions at BGW...
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