Moroccan airports expect a pre-covid rebound in activity

Morocco’s National Airports Office (ONDA) expects a rebound in air travel this year, after two years of border closures due to COVID-related concerns.

This year appears to be in very excellent hands, according to the office, especially with the introduction of multiple airlines with different worldwide firms.

“The predicted average recovery rate of passenger traffic in Morocco’s airports, compared to 2019, is 75%,” the ONDA said in a recent press release, predicting that the introduction of many airlines will boost activity.

The rate of air traffic recovery is expected to exceed 100% for several airports, including Tangier (104%), Nador (104%), Al Hoceima (106 %), Oujda (108%), and Tetouan (53%), according to the same source.

Several airlines have targeted Morocco as a summer destination, allowing the country to return to normal in economic and tourism activities.

As for the current summer season, a total of 48 additional lines will be introduced across the country’s airports, said ONDA.

Earlier this month, the Moroccan National Tourist Office (ONMT) said that direct flights between Israel and Morocco will amount to 8 a week, in a move to bring up total Israeli tourists to 200,000.

On March 13, the first RAM flight took off from Morocco’s economic capital Casablanca in destination to Tel Aviv.

Both RAM and the Israeli airline El Al signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoU) in October in order to provide greater benefits for travelers from Israel and Morocco.

The Arkia airlines company is also preparing to operate direct flights between Tel Aviv and Casablanca twice a week, starting this month, and then it will double its flights to 4 a week, while the Israir airlines company decided to start operating flights on March 28.

Additionally, many other international airlines have launched new lines in Morocco, including Air Arabia, Binter, and TUI Fly.

Spanish airline Binter announced that it has launched a new direct route linking Gran Canaria to Fez, which will be available starting this upcoming July.

The Spanish airline will operate the new route flights every Saturday for the period between July 2 and September 17, the company said in a statement.

Morocco’s flag carrier Royal Air Maroc (RAM) is set to operate 31 weekly flights to 7 destinations in July, while Air Arabia is set to operate 17 flights to 4 destinations.

Low-cost airline Air Arabia said it will launch a new direct line between Nador and Strasbourg starting June 20.

TUI fly will offer 17 weekly flights to 8 destinations, Brussels Airlines with 10 weekly flights to 4 destinations, and Ryanair with 3 weekly flights to Marrakech, in addition to Corendon Airlines, which will enter the Moroccan market for the first time with 5 weekly flights to Al Hoceima and Nador.

Last month, Brussels airport announced that it will operate more flights to Morocco, with over 83 flights a week to 10 different destinations across the country.

Morocco ranked among Top10 most visited countries in February, with an increase in activity of 400% compared to February 2021, according to Brussels airport’s data.