Azores Airlines vs Royal Jordanian

Best product each one flies

Scored on what can be verified. Service, food and ground recovery are absent deliberately: they need someone in the seat, and they live in the reviews rather than here.

One caveat on the Value line, stated rather than buried: Value is computed from business fares, and a carrier with too few of them does not get a Value score at all. Where you see a dash, we have fewer than three priced business routes for that airline and did not want to invent a figure from one or two — so its product score is the mean of three dimensions rather than four, and it is not directly comparable to a score built on hundreds of fares. The airlines with the most fares behind them are named on the business-class ranking.

Dimension by dimension

• Seat: Royal Jordanian

  0/10 on the A321neo / A321LR against 10/10 on the 787-9.

• IFE: level

  Screens, connectivity and power: 8/10 against 8/10.

• Lounge & bags: Royal Jordanian

  What the fare includes before you board: 5/10 against 10/10.

• Value: Azores Airlines

  Median premium over the cheapest carrier on the same route: 10/10 against 9/10.

What happens if the aircraft swaps

Both carriers are paying-the-same-fare-either-way propositions on some frames. The worst product each one flies:

Azores Airlines: Comfort Class is a wide 2-2 recliner, not a lie-flat business seat. The airline states about 40 degrees of recline; it is closer to US domestic first than to a transatlantic bed, and the sub-five-hour Azores sector is what it is built for.

Royal Jordanian: Collins Diamond, 24 seats, the cabin the 787-9 is replacing.

Common questions

Is Azores Airlines or Royal Jordanian better to Europe?

Royal Jordanian scores 9.3/10 against Azores Airlines at 5.8/10 on seat, screens, lounge and fare. On the four dimensions we can verify, Azores Airlines wins 1 and Royal Jordanian wins 2. Service and food are not scored here because they cannot be read off a spec sheet.

Does the aircraft change the answer?

Yes. Royal Jordanian scores 10/10 on the 787-9 and 5/10 on the 787-8 (Crown Class). Check the equipment on your date before deciding.

Has Jon flown either of these?

Azores Airlines, in business on a Europe route. Royal Jordanian has not been flown, so nothing here claims firsthand experience of its cabin.