AFP, AMMAN: Jordan's King Abdullah II formally inaugurated Wednesday the private Arab company that manufactures light aircraft at Queen Alia International Airport, Petra news agency reported.
Jordan Aerospace Industries (JAI) has nine production lines with a capacity to make 50 aircraft this year alone, president Muayad al-Samaree told Petra.
He said he hopes to triple that capacity in 2005 and bring the overall turnout to 250 planes by 2006.
JAI was set up in 2001 and specialises in making light aircraft, including trainers, planes used in airshows, for air rescue missions and for crop-spraying.
Production of the first aircraft, the SAMA CH 2000, which was announced at the Dubai air show in December, was completed earlier this year and has been sold to a Jordanian flying school, which has signed on for six planes.
JAI also secured deals to sell the SAMA CH 2000 to flying schools in Dubai and Saudi Arabia and has signed contracts to export eight planes for use for agriculture purposes to another Arab Gulf state, Samaree told Petra.
Samaree said the firm builds the body of the planes in Jordan while it imports the engines from the United States and Canada.
