The national airline Royal Air Maroc (RAM) is strengthening its flight program to Spain and Portugal, as part of its strategic development plan, aimed at opening new lines and relaunching the connections suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thus, the company will launch a new Seville-Tangier-Casablanca air link and will reopen two lines that were operational before the pandemic with Tenerife and Porto, departing from Casablanca.
This new flight program was announced on Thursday in Madrid at a press conference, held in the presence of several Spanish and Moroccan economic operators, airline managers and Spanish employers, diplomats and representatives of tour- operators.
Reinforcing its positioning on tourist lines and as a major player in the sector, Royal Air Maroc will link Casablanca and Tangier to Seville from 4 December.
This new service will meet the demand of Spanish and Moroccan tourists, as well as Moroccans residing in Spain. Offered at days and times adapted to these customers, the line will be operated every Friday and Sunday.
In addition, Royal Air Maroc will also reopen two lines suspended since the Covid 19 health crisis. The company will thus restore direct air routes from Casablanca to Porto and Tenerife, which will be launched from December 9.
Royal Air Maroc will resume the Casablanca-Tenerife line with two frequencies per week (Thursday and Saturday).
The Portuguese-speaking market is also affected by the reinforcement of the flight schedule. Royal Air Maroc will restore, from December 9, 2022, the Casablanca-Porto line at the rate of two frequencies per week (Monday and Friday).
“With the resumption of traffic, Royal Air Maroc is committed to strengthening its offer to confirm its status as a benchmark player in Moroccan tourism and a major company on our continent. We are therefore mobilizing to consolidate our position in major tourist-generating markets such as France and Spain and to support our anchoring in Africa, where our network now includes 27 destinations. Our commitment is also continuing with the Moroccan and African diasporas by launching and re-establishing direct lines that bring them closer to their mother countries,” said Mr. Hamid Addou, CEO of Royal Air Maroc, quoted in a press release from the RAM.
On this occasion, collaboration agreements were signed between RAM and the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE), the Iberian Business Travel Association (IBTA), the Euro Africa Center and the Ibn Battouta Foundation.
Speaking at the ceremony, Morocco’s Ambassador to Spain, Mrs. Karima Benyaich, stressed that the agreements signed consolidate the presence of RAM in Spain, thus strengthening air links between Morocco and Spain.
“Today, we have 50 weekly flights operated by RAM, the leader in flights between Spain and Morocco, and soon two new lines will be inaugurated, Seville and Tenerife,” noted Ms. Benyaich, specifying that a total of 200 weekly flights are operated between Morocco and Spain, with great prospects for making the neighborhood between the two countries “a meeting point”.
In this context, the diplomat emphasized the major role of RAM as a carrier on the African continent offering travelers the possibility of reaching around thirty destinations in Africa, making Casablanca airport a hub for the continent, highlighting the “very ambitious” African solidarity policy of cooperation in favor of sustainable development led by HM King Mohammed VI.
In addition, Ms. Benyaich added that the launch of these new airlines between Morocco and Spain is also part of this new stage of the “strategic, ambitious and sustainable and forward-looking” partnership, launched between both countries, following the visit of the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sanchez, to Morocco last April at the invitation of HM the King.
For her part, Mrs. Ilham Kazzini, director of the Commercial Department at RAM, indicated that Spain is one of the company’s ”main markets in Europe”, specifying that the signing of several partnership agreements with the economic and associative fabric of Spain at the service of RAM customers, the Moroccan and African community settled in Spain and Moroccan and Spanish businessmen aims to develop the commercial partnership between the company and all economic and associative actors from Spain.
“Through the launch of new air services and the signing of these agreements, our ambition is none other than to strengthen our presence on the Spanish market in terms of frequencies and routes served by the company,” said said Ms. Kazzini in a statement to MAP, recalling that the company already provides connections with the Spanish cities of Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga, Valencia and Las Palmas.
With these new lines, RAM ”strengthens its network and the hub to Casablanca and also gives its customers several possibilities and choice of destinations”, she added.
”Spain is of particular importance in terms of clean traffic between the two countries, but it is also important for our Casablanca hub and allows us to serve all of Africa, in particular sub-Saharan Africa and West Africa. ‘West, where RAM has about thirty destinations’, observed the director of the commercial center at RAM.
By strengthening its presence in Spain, RAM is also capitalizing on its efforts to expand its network to North America, she continued.