The CEO of the national company, Royal Air Morocco (RAM), Abdelhamid Addou gave a detailed presentation on the situation and prospects of the RAM Group, during a presentation held on Tuesday in Parliament before the Commission for Infrastructure, Energy, Mines and Environment under the House of Representatives.
This informative meeting was devoted to examining the situation and prospects of Royal Air Maroc, and it saw the presence of the Minister of Transport and Logistics, Mohammed Abdeljalil. The “Ailes du Maroc” achieved a recovery rate of 77% at the end of 2022 by transporting 5 million passengers in 2022, and achieved a turnover of 12.6 billion dirhams. Although down 22% compared to 2019, the reference year, with 2.7 million passengers transported at the end of March 2023 (fiscal year Nov/Oct), the recovery rate is 97% compared to the same period in 2019, it is rather a feeling of satisfaction that emerged from this parliamentary meeting.
That said, and to stay in the heart of the matter, “situation and future prospects” Abdelhamid Addou drew the main lines of RAM’s new roadmap by announcing a doubling of the group’s fleet in the coming decade, location of six planes next summer for the immediate future, the reinforcement of the network, the opening of new lines as well as the reopening of old suspended lines that Dame Covid, in her passage, had impacted…
In the year 2022, RAM will have opened or reopened connections such as Tel Aviv and Dubai or Doha in the Middle East and relaunched destinations such as North America (Miami), or Europe such as Las Palmas, Tenerife, Seville and even Porto closer to the Kingdom. Africa is concerned with in particular a Casablanca-Luanda link in Angola… In this perspective, flights serving Europe will be reinforced with the opening of new lines from Tangier to Madrid, Barcelona in Spain and London in England. Oujda is not left out since it will directly connect Düsseldorf to Germany where many MREs reside.
Also in the small papers of RAM and in order to meet the specific needs of the summer season, destinations to the Old Continent will be served by two daily flights from Casablanca, in particular for Barcelona, Bologna, Malaga, Madrid, Brussels and Milan. The CEO of RAM indicated that the Group was also providing a greater number of destinations to its customers, thanks to the agreements signed with El Al Israel Airlines, Emirates Airlines and Qatar Airways.
In addition, locally the national company wants to be a major player in the promotion of national tourism by contributing to the opening up of certain regions with 25 connections and has concluded a series of agreements with various parties, in cooperation with the Ministry of Transport and Logistics, the Ministry of the Interior… with the aim of promoting domestic air transport.
With regard to the fleet of the national company, Abdelhamid Addou affirmed before the Commission that RAM will work to strengthen its fleet, by doubling it over the next ten years, while strengthening the historical geographical position on the Europe- West Africa and by developing new geographical areas.
The national airline for the next summer season, targeting 6.2 million seats (90 destinations), including 2.3 million in Europe (34 airports), half a million seats for North America (United States) States and Canada), 901,000 seats will be dedicated to Africa through 26 direct connections and 200,000 seats for the Middle Eastern markets (excluding the pilgrimage period).
As for the rental of planes, in anticipation of a summer season RAM will proceed with the rental of six new generation aircraft, said Abdelhamid Addou. Among these planes, an Airbus A330-200 will be chartered to reinforce RAM’s operations this summer. It will be deployed between Casablanca and Paris-CDG airports (June 25 to September 3) and Istanbul (June 15 to 23). It is configured to accommodate 22 passengers in Business class and 240 in Economy.