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Irish budget airline Ryanair will launch flights to Amman and Aqaba in Jordan in March, expanding its operations in the Middle East where it currently operates in Israel and Morocco.

The new route will see flights between Amman and Paphos in Cyprus launched next month, Ryanair said in a statement.

In 2019, Ryanair said, the airline will fly 14 routes from Amman and Aqaba.

The airline, which carried almost 130 million passengers last year, expects to fly 430,000 passengers per year to and from Jordan, it said.

The vast majority of Ryanair’s routes are in the European Union, but it also flies to a number of non-EU countries that, like Jordan, have “Open Skies” agreements with the EU that allow deregulated air travel.

“Enhancing air connectivity is one of the key areas Jordan is focusing on given its impact on unlocking economic growth through attracting business investment as well as spurring tourism,” Jordan’s Minister of Tourism Lina Annab said in a statement welcoming Ryanair’s announcement.

Jordan's tourism industry has seen bad days on account of the conflicts ravaging neighbouring Iraq and Syria, but it is optimistic it can recover its pre-2011 numbers.