Royal Jordanian is to introduce services to a fifth destination in Iraq with the launch of a new link to Mosul in the north of the country, becoming one of only three scheduled airlines to offer international flights into Mosul International Airport. The new flight, which will commence next month, will complement the carrier’s existing flights to Baghdad, Basra, Sulaymaniyah and Erbil.

The airline will initially offer two flights per week between its home base at Queen Alia International Airport in Amman and Mosul from November 12, 2013, raising the number of flights between Jordan and Iraq to 28 weekly, including nine weekly flights to each of Baghdad and Erbil and four weekly flights to each of Basra and Sulaymaniyah.

Through this new route, Royal Jordanian aims to boost its presence in the Iraqi market, help the growing air transport between the two countries, in general, and serve, in particular, businessmen, students and Jordanian and Iraqi citizens wishing to fly to Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq in terms of population. The flight will also link in Amman to Royal Jordanian’s wider network offering connections across a variety of markets.

The Amman – Mosul route is already served by Jordanian operator Royal Falcon, the country’s second carrier. The airline launched twice weekly operations on the route in May 2012 but now operates four flights per week using a Boeing 737-400. Royal Jordanian plans to use an Embraer E175 on its new twice weekly offering. An estimated 18,000 bi-directional O&D passengers travelled on the route in 2012.

In the table below we highlight the largest operators in the Iraqi international market based on the 2013 calendar year flight schedules. Turkish Airlines, which serves six destinations in the country from Istanbul is the largest operator in this market, but Royal Jordanian, which has a long history to providing connectivity into Iraq, is ranked sixth by capacity, but third by flight frequency.