Royal Jordanian is offering its staff voluntary redundancy as part of the airline’s ongoing efficiency drive.

The airline said in statement that it had struck a deal with the General Union for Air Transport allowing employees to “obtain a voluntary release from the job” between February 1 and March 31.

“As per the agreement, employees have the option to submit a request to be released from service, and, subject to Royal Jordanian’s approval, the employees are given a half-month salary for each year of service,” RJ said.

RJ CEO Stefan Pichler said the agreement comes in line with the turnaround plan RJ is currently implementing to achieve sustainable profitability and one of the main pillars of the plan requires that RJ reduces the manpower. 

RJ returned to profit in 2017 for the first time in more than a decade. The airline achieved a net operating profit of JD 5.4 million Jordanian dinars in the first nine months of the year, compared to a net loss of JD 2.7 million in the same period of 2016. The number of passengers who flew with RJ over the same period rose 5 percent to 955,000.

RJ plans to open additional routes in the next five years to Washington, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Kyrenia in Cyprus. RJ will also work to resume flying to Damascus, Mosul, Sana’a, Aden and Benghazi, Pichler said.