Royal Jordanian is seeking to expand into new destinations in East Africa, including Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania next year, its chief executive officer has stated.

Following the launch of a new Amman-Lagos route which is due to begin in late November, the national carrier of Jordan is seeking to open new up new markets across the continent.

Hussein Dabbas, president and chief executive of Royal Jordanian, outlined the strategy during a press conference at the World Route Development Strategy Summit earlier.

“These markets offer great value to our customers, this will also be the first time we will serve Africa on a regional basis, we think it is a great market,” he said.

“We expect it to be both origin, destination and transfer traffic”

Dabbas added that despite the presence of other Middle East carriers, such as Qatar Airways and Emirates Airline in the region there “was plenty of space” for Royal Jordanian to make a successful entry into the market.

Royal Jordanian was nominated as the Middle East’s Leading Airline at the World Travel Awards earlier this year.