Passengers traffic through Morocco’s airports will resume its normal pace by 2024 and will gradually begin to recover by the next year, according to a recent report released by the Ministry of Economy.
Airports’ pace was affected during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to the closure of borders during the total lockdown.
During the period 2015-2019, the airport’s pace decreased by over 71% due to the pandemic’s effects on air transport at the national and international levels.
In 2018, passengers’ movement through Morocco’s airports recorded about 22.5 million passengers, before it increased to 25 million in 2019, and decreased to only 7.7 million in 2020.
By next year, passengers’ movement is expected to witness a recovery of 60%, reaching about 80% by 2023, stabilizing at its normal level and coming close to the performance recorded during the pre-COVID-19 pandemic to reach 25 million passengers by 2024, the same as 2019.
Until the end of last June, air traffic had reached approximately 2.4 million passengers, compared to 4.9 million passengers during the same period last year.
As a result of this decline, the turnover of the National Airports Office was significantly affected, as it decreased by 63%, moving from MAD4.2 billion in 2019 to MAD1.5 billion in 2020.
According to the report of the Ministry of Economy’s data, the net result of the office has decreased from MAD566 million in 2019 to MAD-1.9 billion last year.
Expectations by the end of this year indicate that the transaction number would reach MAD2 billion, representing an increase of 31% compared to last year.
The net result is expected to record a loss of MAD1.4 billion, while the total investments would reach MAD1 billion by the end of this year.
The office is preparing to invest over MAD5 billion for the period from 2022 to 2024, mainly to be allocated in order to expand and upgrade projects in the airports of Rabat, Tangier, Agadir, Dakhla, Tetouan, and El Hoceima.
The prospects of the airport sector are expected that a program contract will be signed between the office and the state in order to establish a new organizational model, aiming to the transformation of the office into a joint-stock company.
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