[I wonder if insurers were "persuaded" to drop such coverage?]

RJ cancels today's flight to Baghdad

By Saad G. Hattar AMMAN — Royal Jordanian (RJ) has cancelled today's flight to Baghdad in the absence of insurance coverage following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the US, official sources said on Saturday.

The national carrier's president and chief executive officer, Samer Majali, said international companies have halted insurance coverage for planes flying over Iraq.

“We are still negotiating with these firms to cover Iraq-bound flights,” added Majali. “So far, they are not willing to include this area under insurance coverage.”

According to Majali, the initial plan is to cancel today's scheduled flight, pending a last-minute agreement with insurance companies.

In May, Royal Jordanian resumed regular commercial flights to Baghdad, following a ten-year halt. Since then, it has been operating four flights a week on this “profitable line despite high insurance premiums,” according to the RJ president.

The next Amman-Baghdad flight is scheduled for Tuesday.

Iraq, reeling under 11 years of crippling UN sanctions, was classified as a potential war-risk zone as the US raised the tempo of war drums in the wake of the terrorist attacks that has led to the mobilisation of US troops worldwide.

Afghanistan-based Saudi dissident Osama Ben Laden, named by the US as the prime suspect behind the attacks, is the most probable target although strategic analysts do not rule out strikes against other targets.

Over the past week, insurance companies hiked war-risk premiums on naval and air routes.

Extra tariffs had been levied on RJ's Kuala Lumpur-bound routes to the tune of $40,000 per flight, according the airline's officials. The premium later went down to $10,000, they added.

Majali said, meanwhile, that extra war-risk-zone insurance premiums until the end of the year as well as cancelled flights to the US have cost RJ “several million dollars in losses.”

RJ, which in 1999 reversed a several-year losing streak, has plans to generate higher profits in line with a long-term privatisation scheme.

Over and above, the national carrier, launched in 1963, has suffered a 20 per cent drop in flight reservations to the country, and thus profits are expected to drop by the end of the year.

RJ registered a similar drop following the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada on Sept. 28, 2000.

In the 10 months preceeding the airborne attacks on New York and Washington, RJ saw the cancellation of 70,000 reservations and 40 charter flights, Majali had said in an earlier statement.

He said these cancellations “deprived the company of receipts estimated at $12 million.”

Majali said the airline's net profits in 2000 failed to exceed $1million, with just 1.2 million passengers, against 28 million dollars in profits and 1.5 million passengers in 1999.

The fleet, which flies to 47 different destinations, comprises 14 Airbus planes, half of which are leased.

-- Anonymous, September 23, 2001