The airline said that it would be suspending operations to Brussels, Munich and Alain in March and April, followed by a further two routes which will be revealed at a later date.

Furthermore, the company has also decided to reduce the number of frequencies to destinations including Rome, Vienna, Zurich, Geneva, Amsterdam, Colombo and Khartoum.

The carrier’s board of directors took the decision to suspend operations “in order to reduce the operating costs brought up by the soaring fuel prices and to offset the decline in tourism to the region, the outcome of the Arab spring and the political unrest”.

The five routes have been chosen based on “the assessment of the performance and economic feasibility of these stations”, the board added.

Meanwhile, RJ said it would cancel more flights during the year, which will be decided by the amount of bookings to certain destinations, and will keep tight control on all aspects of capital expenditure.

The airline has already stopped employing new personnel this year.

Hussein Dabbas, CEO of RJ, said that the airline would also consider reducing the size of its fleet in light of the changes.

The rise in the cost of fuel severely impacted the airline’s financial results for 2011, and accounted for a 20% increase in the overall operational cost of the company.

In addition, Dabbas said the Arab Spring and the political unrest that swept the Arab region last year has also played a significant part as the airline was forced to close some of its stations, such as Tripoli and Benghazi, for several months.

At the same time, other stations experienced a noticeable decline in traffic, such as Tunis, Damascus, Aleppo, Sana’a, Aden, Bahrain, Cairo, Alexandria and Sharm El Sheikh, resulting in the loss of hundreds of thousands of passengers.

Dabbas said: “The company conducted extensive studies aimed at finding the best possible solutions and techniques to mitigate the impact of the increase in fuel prices and the instability in the Arab region, as well as the impact of the economic crisis experienced the world over and particularly in the euro zone.

“It also based its decisions on the forecast that tourism to Jordan and the Middle East will decline due to all these challenges, as expected in the first quarter of 2012.”