Alia Pt1: Hashemite Jewel 1963-1975

​Despite being involved in three wars against Israel Jordan, ably led by King Hussein, successfully negotiated the murky waters of the Middle East political scene to achieve relative stability for the country and provide the basis from which a successful national airline could be forged. This airline Alia – Royal Jordanian successfully overcame adversity to find itself well placed as it entered the mid-1970s for growth and success.

Alia Royal Jordanian Boeing 720 JY-ADS Aeroclassics 1:400 Scale Die-cast Model

​The state of Transjordan came into being in 1922 following the dubious carve up of the Middle East by the British and French after World War One. It became fully independent in 1946 and was renamed as Jordan in 1948 by its Hashemite rulers. The nation like several others in the Middle East was artificially constructed, but despite involvement in several of the various Arab-Israeli conflicts it has somehow managed to avoid the majority of the bloodshed that has engulfed almost all of its neighbours. This is in a large part due to the canny leadership of King Hussein. The fact that Jordan is also poor of natural resources like Oil and Water has also probably favoured stability.

​Alia Airlines – Royal Jordanian Airlines came into being in 1963 by Royal decree from His Majesty King Hussein and by the end of the year the original Amman-Beirut service had been added to with Cairo and Kuwait. The unusual name Alia was a result of the carrier being named after Hussein’s eldest daughter. At its formation the airline was not fully state-owned and had significant private investment.

​Growth through the 1960s was steady. The initial pair of Handley Page Heralds and single DC-7 were augmented by another DC-7 (see here for a nice shot of a Jordanian DC-7) and then 5 Viscounts leased from either MEA or British United for periods. Some of the Viscounts had seen service with Alia's predecessor Jordan Airways. 

The jet age came to Jordan in 1965 with a trio of new Caravelle 10Rs and allowed a first European service – to Rome.

​London and Paris followed in 1966 but it wasn’t all onwards and upwards as the Arab-Israeli war not only disrupted operations in 1967 but also led to the Israeli’s destroying both the DC-7s in an air raid. At least it wasn’t the Caravelles that fell victim and the DC-7s were quickly replaced by a pair of Fokker F27s. The loss of Jordanian control of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) was a setback but the loss of Jerusalem as a destination was offset by continued international growth. Athens was added and following full nationalization in 1968 so were other regional destinations - Nicosia, Benghazi, Dhahran and Doha.

The 1968 route map

​The 1970s would be the decade when Alia grew from a regional airline to a long-haul flag carrier. The fleet was still small and by 1970 consisted only of the trio of Caravelles. Circumstances did not immediately look very promising as Jordanian forces had to fight to remove Palestinian Fedayeen fighters (including Arafat’s PLO) which were openly calling for the overthrow of the Hashemite monarchy. This led to what is known as Black September but it wasn’t until July 1971 that the Fedayeen forces were finally expelled.

Caravelle 10R JY-ACT in 1971. Photo by Christian Volpati from Wikipedia

​During this period failing ties with neighbouring Syria, and indeed open combat between Jordanian and Syrian forces in September 1970, saw Syrian airspace closed to Alia, which with its Beirut service more than quadrupled in length to 4.5 hours due to the necessary re-routing led to the service’s closure.

JY-ADO was the aircraft lost in Nigeria. By RuthAS from Wikipedia

​Nonetheless King Hussein had high hopes for Alia, which acquired a pair of new 707-3D3Cs from Boeing in 1971. These were supplemented further by a pair of second-hand Boeing 720s from Pan Am in 1972. New services reached out as far as Copenhagen, Madrid and Karachi.

​JY-ADS was originally D-ABOQ ‘Essen’ delivered to Lufthansa in March 1962 and sold onto Pan Am as N787PA ‘Clipper Guiding Star’ in Feb 1966. Her sister JY-ADT had a similar vintage. The pair of 720s appear to have directly replaced two of the Caravelles which left the fleet in March and December 1973, leaving just the single remaining 10R to soldier on until April 1975.

JY-ADT still in service in 1978. Photo by Michael Gilliand from Wikipedia

​The ups and downs continued for Alia as one of its pair of 707s was destroyed on January 22, 1973 whilst on lease to Nigeria Airways when it landed short of the runway at Kano, with the loss of 176 out of 202 occupants. Even so re-equipment plans continued aided by Jordan’s reasonably good ties with the USA. A trio of new Boeing 727-200 Advanceds arrived from July-November 1974.

​In 1975 Geneva, Amsterdam, Brussels and Bangkok joined the network and four extra Boeing 707s were acquired on the second-hand market. Two of these were ex-Olympic frames whilst the other two were former Pan American aircraft. Unfortunately, one of the ex-PA aircraft had a very short career with Alia as it was written off on August 3, 1975 (only four months into its Jordanian career) when it struck a mountain ridge on approach to Agadir, Morocco. Once again, the aircraft was not operating for Alia at the time, having been chartered to Royal Air Maroc. All 188 aboard perished and it remains the worst accident involving a 707 in history. In December a replacement 707 was purchased, again ex-Pan Am.

Caravelle JY-ADG was renamed Aqaba and served until April 1975. I assume she was the only one of the three to wear this livery.

​The sale of the last Caravelle left Alia with an all Boeing fleet which by early 1976 stood at 5 707-320s, 2 720s and 3 727-200s. There was a minor reduction when one of the 720s, JY-ADS, was sold in October 1976 to Pakistan International where it became AP-AZP. The aircraft subsequently had an interesting career as on March 2nd 1981 it was hijacked during a flight between Karachi and Peshawar and the hijacking wasn’t resolved until March 14th in Syria! The aircraft was retired and became a fun fair attraction at Karachi's Jabees Funland in New Clifton but was scrapped a few years later.

Boeing 720 JY-ADS was sold just over a year after this 1975 shot by Clinton Groves. From Wikipedia

​Despite some serious trials Alia successfully navigated a tricky first 12 years. In 1975 it carried 380,000 passengers and recorded a profit of 647,000 British pounds. Its network had more than doubled since 1970 and was operating to 28 destinations, 2 of which were in Asia and 9 in Europe. Far from accepting this however the aviation mad King Hussein wanted the carrier to continue to grow and the disintegration of Lebanon into civil war gave Alia the chance to take up the mantle of long-haul services.

Alia Boeing 727-200. Photo by Alain Durand from Wikipedia

​In part 2 we’ll look at Alia as it grew into widebody operations in the second half of the 1970s. Press the button below to go to part 2:

Part 2: Hashemite Crown 1975-1990

Reference
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​All timetable images from the excellent timetableimages.com

King Hussein of Jordan. Wikipedia 
RZjets.net Royal Jordanian 
Utopia Airport Blog: Royal Jordanian 1969-76