Between 2.5 and 3 million Palestinians travel over the King Hussein Bridge
annually; two million of them use Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) to
travel to different destinations around the world, which represents 22 percent
of the total number of travelers through QAIA. This may be the main reason the
government is concerned about the use of Ramon Airport for Palestinian
passengers, which will have a negative economic impact Jordan.
اضافة اعلان
In 2019, the revenues of Airport International
Group, the operating company of QAIA, amounted to about JD200 million, of which
54.64 percent goes to the government as direct revenues, based on the build,
operate, and transfer (BOT) agreement signed by the group and the government.
This is equivalent to some JD2.5 billion as an indirect, stimulus, and induced
return on GDP.
The Israeli decision to allow Palestinian passengers
to travel through Ramon Airport may have two reasons. One is an attempt to use
the freedom and ease of travel for Palestinians to counter Jordan’s objection
to operating Ramon Airport as a purely economic attempt, exploiting Jordanians’
sympathy with their Palestinian brothers. Israel wishes to revive Ramon
Airport, which costed approximately $1.7 billion to build, and which it was
unable to operate because Jordan objected against it to the International Civil
Aviation Organization for violating the protocols of building airports, in
terms of distance that must be maintained between airports; Ramonis very close
to King Hussein International Airport in Aqaba.
The other reason is to increase pressure on Jordan’s
economy as a punishment for its steadfast stance on the Palestinian cause, and
its custodianship over Jerusalem’s Christian and Muslim holy places.
Jordan does not have the economic luxury to overlook
its objection to the operation of Ramon Airport. But it may pay closer
attention to Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, who said: “If Israel
wants to facilitate travel for the Palestinians, let it open Al-Quds Airport
for us,” meaning the abandoned Qalandia Airport, which is located in the
northern part of the occupied West Bank and which was closed in 2000.
Operating the Ramon Airport and the government’s
reaction against it show the lack of planning to deal with the simplest threats
that may affect our economy, the absence of risk management governance, and
being reactive rather than proactive in dealing with challenges.
This can be illustrated by the manner in which
Jordan adopts and fights for the right to establish a Palestinian state and, at
the same time, drops from its economic considerations the idea of an
operational airport for the Palestinians in the event their state is
established, or there is an Israeli-Palestinian agreement to operate Qalandia
Airport.
Making QAIA one of the most important airports in the MENA region should be one of the economic empowerment pillars for Jordan.
The Palestinians have the right, like other peoples
of the world, to choose the travel itinerary that is the most financially
viable, most comfortable, and most effortless. The Palestinian Authority should
not take unfair measures vis-à-vis its citizens traveling from Ramon Airport, a
temporary courtesy to Jordan.
To deal with this issue, Jordan has only one option: attract and encourage
Palestinians to travel through QAIA and King Hussein Bridge, by facilitating
the movement of passengers over the bridge through increasing the capacity for
passenger traffic, improving the quality of transit services, negotiating with
Israel to increase the working hours on the other side of the bridge, and
introducing an incentive package that exempts travelers with an electronically
documented air ticket to travel through QAIA from paying fees for crossing the
bridge.
Most importantly, the government needs to realize
the strategic importance of the location of QAIA, and the need to support local
airlines to operate as an air bridge between East and West, by taking advantage
of the geographical location of Jordan and its balanced foreign policy, which allows
our airlines to cross the airspace of all neighboring countries without
restrictions. It might also consider future expansion to increase its capacity.
Making QAIA one of the most important airports in
the MENA region should be one of the economic empowerment pillars for Jordan.
That should be easy, knowing that the
airport received in 2019 around 8.9 million passengers, constituting 74 percent
of its maximum capacity, recording a growth rate of 26 percent during the
period between 2015–2019, outperforming Doha, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi airports
with a compound annual growth rate of 4.7 percent.
Muath Almbaidheen is CEO of the Performance Index Center for Strategic Studies and
Consultations.
Read more Opinion and Analysis
Jordan News
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