Former Condor and Air Berlin boss Stefan Pichler has left Royal Jordanian. The company announced that Chairman Said Samih Darwazah will take over the chairmanship on an interim basis. Pichler has headed the state carrier since 2017.

After his resignation, which took place on September 30, 2020, Pichler wants to focus on retirement. Amman Airport was closed for around six months due to the corona pandemic. As a result, the carrier slipped into the red and generated a loss of 80,7 million euros in the first half of the year. However, Royal Jordanian was previously not highly profitable, because in the same period last year the profit was only 1,68 million euros.

From 2001 Stefan Pichler was Managing Director of C&N Touristik, a joint venture between KarstadtQuelle and Lufthansa, which took over competitor Thomas Cook and renamed it to its identity. At the same time, he also managed the Condor holiday airline, which was renamed "Thomas Cook Airlines" under his management. In 2003 he had to leave the group. After various intermediate positions, Pichler came into the executive chair at Air Berlin in 2015, before he was replaced by Thomas Winkelmann at the beginning of 2017.

Royal Jordanian is looking for a new CEO. Chairman Said Samih Darwazah only took over the management on an ad-interim basis.