Royal Jet

A Boeing 737 without airline livery, with an Emirati registration and parked far from the terminal – if you spot something like that on an apron, you have a good chance of having come across Royal Jet. The VIP charter operator from Abu Dhabi flies state guests, business people and patients with one of the largest fleets of Boeing Business Jets in the world. Here you will learn how Royal Jet works, what is in the fleet and how to identify the jets reliably.

Royal Jet at a glance

Royal Jet is an on-demand charter operator from Abu Dhabi that specializes in VIP charter with large business jets. There is no scheduled network, and no tickets with flight numbers either. Customers charter a whole aircraft with crew – for a single flight, for a block of flight hours or as a permanently assigned aircraft. According to the company, its target groups include heads of state and government as well as ultra-wealthy private clients.

According to reference sources, Royal Jet began flight operations in May 2003. The company was founded as a joint venture of two Abu Dhabi heavyweights: Abu Dhabi Aviation and the Amiri Flight, the flight service of the ruling family, which was renamed Presidential Flight in 2009. Today the company mostly appears as RoyalJet in one word; in 2021 it relaunched its brand and customer experience.

Besides charter, there are other lines of business: Royal Jet manages aircraft for owners, brokers flights with partners, flies intensive care patients and operates its own FBO with a VIP lounge at Abu Dhabi Airport. Royal Jet guests are handled there just like passengers of other operators’ private jets. By its own account, the company achieves up to 10,000 charter hours a year in the VVIP segment.

Codes, callsign and registrations

Because Royal Jet does not appear on departure boards, codes and registrations are your most important tool.

• ICAO code ROJ: this is how air traffic control lists the flights, and how they show up on flight trackers.
• Callsign ROYALJET: the crew identifies itself on the radio under this name.
• No IATA code in use: without scheduled flights there are no flight numbers for passengers.
• Registration A6-: the jets are mostly registered in the United Arab Emirates. Many carry the letter sequence RJ – for example A6-RJA, A6-RJF, A6-RJK, A6-RJU or A6-RJZ. There are exceptions, though, such as A6-DAS and A6-AIN.

One special feature is RoyalJet Bermuda. The wholly owned subsidiary received an air operator certificate from Bermuda in July 2021 – the group’s first outside the Emirates. It allows Royal Jet to operate aircraft with Bermuda registrations, a register that is common in business aviation. For you that means: not every Royal Jet BBJ necessarily carries an A6 registration. How to read registrations in general is explained in the guide Understanding aircraft registrations.

The fleet: Boeing Business Jets at the center

Royal Jet is best known for its BBJ fleet. In 2021 the company spoke of ten Boeing Business Jets that it owns or operates and called it by far the largest BBJ fleet in the world. According to reference sources, the fleet at the end of 2025 comprised eight BBJs, one of them with RoyalJet Bermuda, and two Bombardier Global 5000s. The website lists the individual jets with registrations and cabins:

Registration	Type	Cabin according to Royal Jet	Spotter note
A6-RJA	Boeing Business Jet	19 seats, bedroom with shower	According to Royal Jet the BBJ with the longest range, additional tanks for over 12 hours
A6-RJF	Boeing Business Jet	19 seats, suite in the rear	Classic VVIP configuration
A6-RJU	Boeing Business Jet	34 seats, bedroom at the front	Ka-band internet on board
A6-DAS	Boeing Business Jet	36 or 46 seats, majlis lounge	Can be fitted for air ambulance flights with up to three intensive care modules
A6-AIN	Boeing Business Jet	36 or 46 seats, majlis lounge	Sister aircraft of the A6-DAS
A6-RJZ	Boeing Business Jet	42 or 52 seats	Up to four intensive care modules for air ambulance flights
A6-RJK	Boeing Business Jet	around 90 seats, 58 in business seating or around 35 VVIP	Cargo door, also usable as a pure freighter; unveiled in December 2024
A6-RJC	Bombardier Global 5000	13 seats	Smallest jet in the fleet
A6-RJD	Bombardier Global 5000	13 seats	Based in Kuala Lumpur since 2024

The cabins are unusually varied. Besides classic VIP layouts with a bedroom and shower, there are jets with a majlis lounge, the traditional Arabic reception room, and aircraft that can be converted between VIP, group and cargo configurations. The A6-RJK stands out in particular: with its cargo door, a convertible interior and zero to six additional tanks, it is more of a flying multipurpose tool than a pure luxury jet.

BBJ or regular 737-700? How to tell the difference

The Boeing Business Jet is the VIP version of the Boeing 737. The original combines the fuselage of the 737-700 with the wing and the strengthened landing gear of the larger 737-800. From the outside it is therefore hard to separate from a scheduled-service 737. A few hints help:

You learn which 737 generation is in front of you in the guide Telling apart the Boeing 737 Original, Classic, NG and MAX. Royal Jet’s BBJs belong to the Next Generation – the newer MAX-based BBJs play no role in the fleet so far. The manufacturer is Boeing.

The two Bombardier Global 5000s are much smaller: classic long-range business jets with two rear-mounted engines and a T-tail. The Global 5000 is a shortened variant of the Global Express from Bombardier. How to tell Global, Gulfstream and Falcon apart is explained in Telling business jet types apart.

The Airbus order: three ACJ320neos

For a long time Royal Jet was purely a Boeing and Bombardier customer. That is changing with the Airbus ACJ320neo. In December 2024 Royal Jet signed a letter of intent with Airbus Corporate Jets at the MEBAA business aviation show, and in February 2025 the firm order for three ACJ320neos followed. According to Royal Jet, purchase rights for six more jets come on top. That makes Royal Jet a customer of Airbus for the first time.

Date	Step
December 2024	Letter of intent for three ACJ320neos at MEBAA
February 2025	Firm order for three ACJ320neos
November 2025	Selection of CFM LEAP-1A engines at the Dubai Airshow
December 2025	Cabin design contract awarded to Studio Edése Doret

For engines, Royal Jet chose the LEAP-1A from CFM International at the Dubai Airshow in November 2025. The cabins are being designed by the design studio Edése Doret, which thereby received its third commission from Royal Jet. Royal Jet has not publicly stated a delivery date. According to Royal Jet, the jet reaches destinations in Europe, Africa and Asia from Abu Dhabi without a stopover. The company cites the wide, tall cabin and the lower fuel consumption of the neo generation as reasons. How to tell neo and ceo apart on the apron is shown in A320neo or ceo?.

Air ambulance flights and aircraft management

A lesser-known part of Royal Jet is its VIP air ambulance flights. Some BBJs can be fitted with several intensive care modules, according to the company up to four per aircraft. On board are teams of doctors and nurses specialized in intensive and emergency care – also for newborns, children and cardiac patients. Such missions are short-notice and hard to plan. If a Royal Jet BBJ turns up unexpectedly at an airport, an air ambulance flight may be behind it.

The second mainstay is aircraft management. Owners hand their jet over to Royal Jet, which provides crews, maintenance and hangar space. The aircraft can fly either only for the owner or additionally on charter. For spotters this explains why managed jets sometimes appear in the fleet and then disappear again.

Bases and area of operation

The center is Abu Dhabi. According to reference sources, Royal Jet uses three sites in the Emirates:

• Abu Dhabi Zayed International (AUH): this is where the FBO with the redesigned VVIP lounge is located. The base shares the airport with Etihad Airways and Air Arabia Abu Dhabi.
• Al Bateen Executive Airport: Abu Dhabi’s downtown business jet airport.
• Dubai World Central / Al Maktoum (DWC): Dubai’s second major airport with a lot of business aviation.

Since November 2024 the Global 5000 A6-RJD has also been based in Kuala Lumpur to serve charter customers in Asia. On top of that comes a BBJ of the Bermuda subsidiary, which was based in Europe at launch.

The real area of operation is the whole world. VIP charter follows state visits, summits, sporting events and clients’ travel seasons. There is no fixed pattern as with a scheduled airline – and that is exactly what makes every sighting outside the Emirates special.

Spotting Royal Jet

In Abu Dhabi, Royal Jet BBJs are a familiar sight. Before you head out there, you should know the local rules: in the Emirates, photography at airports is regulated more strictly than in Germany. The article Photographing at airports in the UAE gives an overview, and you will find tips for the neighboring city under Plane spotting in Dubai.

In Europe you see Royal Jet less often and usually unannounced. There are good chances at major political events, state visits and big sporting events. Then many VIP jets often park side by side at the host cities’ airports, and government aircraft such as those of the Flugbereitschaft (Germany’s government air transport service) stand right next to them. How to plan such days is shown in Spotting government aircraft.

You will find more on the segment as a whole under Spotting business jets. And if you want to know how special your sighting is, Judging the rarity of a sighting helps.

Royal Jet compared

In the market for large VIP jets, Royal Jet is a classic charter operator: customers rent the jet per flight or for a block of hours. The difference from scheduled service is explained in Charter flights and scheduled flights. NetJets and Flexjet, which sell shares in aircraft, work differently. A European comparison is Air Hamburg, which grew from smaller Embraer jets into a major business jet charterer.

You should not confuse Royal Jet with the Presidential Flight Abu Dhabi. Both come from the same root, but the Presidential Flight flies the ruling family and government, while Royal Jet offers its jets on the open charter market.

Common mix-ups

• Logging a BBJ as a regular 737-700 – without airline livery and with an A6-RJ registration it is almost always the business jet.
• Equating Royal Jet with the Presidential Flight – same roots, but different tasks.
• Assuming every A6 registration is Royal Jet – A6- stands for all aircraft from the Emirates; only ROJ on the tracker gives certainty.
• Looking for all Royal Jet jets in Abu Dhabi – one Global 5000 flies out of Kuala Lumpur, and the Bermuda subsidiary has its own aircraft.
• Assuming the ACJ320neo is already in the fleet – ordered yes, but Royal Jet has not named a delivery date.
• Planning by the departure board – charter flights have no public flight number.

Conclusion

Royal Jet is one of the most exciting business jet operators for spotters: where else do you meet an entire fleet of Boeing 737s in VIP configuration? Since 2003 the operation has flown state guests, private clients and patients out of Abu Dhabi. With the Bermuda subsidiary, a Global 5000 in Asia and the ACJ320neo order, Royal Jet is growing beyond the Emirates. If you want to collect the jets, watch for the A6 registration, the code ROJ and the subtle differences between a BBJ and a scheduled-service 737.