It’s always nice to see more nonstop service to interesting destinations. Along those lines, Delta Air Lines has just announced plans to launch its first-ever route to Morocco.
Delta will start flying to Marrakech, Morocco
As of October 25, 2025, Delta will launch a new 4,388-mile route between Atlanta (ATL) and Marrakech (RAK). The flight will operate with the following schedule:
DL186 Atlanta to Marrakech departing 7:45PM arriving 8:55AM (+1 day)
DL187 Marrakech to Atlanta departing 10:50AM arriving 3:55PM
The eastbound flight is blocked at 8hr10min and will operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, while the westbound flight is blocked at 10hr5min and will operate on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.
Interestingly, there’s no mention of this route being seasonal, so I’m not sure if that’s an oversight, or if the flight will actually operate year-round. That would surprise me, since you’d think that there are more profitable markets in which a plane could be operated in peak summer months (Morocco gets very hot).
The service will operate 3x weekly with a Boeing 767-400ER, featuring 238 seats. This includes 34 business class (Delta One) seats, 20 premium economy (Premium Select) seats, and 184 economy (Main Cabin) seats.
Credit to @xJonNYC, who broke the news of this route being launched. It’s amazing how many scoops he gets!
DL: rumors going around of a possible long haul route announcement Friday.
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) February 26, 2025 at 8:02 PM
This will be Delta’s sixth destination in Africa, complementing flights to Accra (ACC), Cape Town (CPT), Dakar (DSS), Johannesburg (JNB), and Lagos (LOS).
How this fits into the competitive landscape
Delta is obviously following United’s lead here. This past winter, United launched a 3x weekly seasonal route to Marrakech out of Newark (EWR), using a Boeing 767, and that route will be resuming this coming winter season.
With Delta announcing flights to Marrakech, it means that American will be the only one of the “big three” US carriers to not fly to Morocco (well, or Africa at all, for that matter). That’s a bit ironic, since Royal Air Maroc is part of oneworld, so American actually has a partner in Morocco, unlike Delta and United.
Funny enough, in 2020, American was supposed to launch a route from Philadelphia (PHL) to Casablanca (CMN) using a Boeing 757. That was expected to launch in June 2020, but never ended up coming to fruition, initially due to reduced demand resulting from the pandemic, and then due to American retiring its 757s (and 767s, and A330s… man, American is a shell of its former self).
Regardless, it’s cool to see more nonstop transatlantic flights to Marrakech. Historically, Casablanca has been used as the long haul gateway to Morocco, presumably largely for political reasons, and for business and connecting traffic. However, for point-to-point leisure traffic (which is what US carriers are going after), Marrakech is of course where it’s at.
Some might be surprised to see Delta operating this route out of Atlanta, rather than out of New York. After all, in terms of point-to-point traffic, New York has the most demand for travel to Marrakech. Obviously this was a strategic decision, since United already flies between the two areas (Newark vs. New York, but same difference). Delta’s priority seems to be to offer a new one-stop option between just about anywhere in the United States and Marrakech.
Bottom line
Delta has announced a new route between Atlanta and Marrakech. The 3x weekly service will launch as of October 25, 2025, and Delta will use a Boeing 767-400ER for the flight. It’s always cool to see more point-to-point long haul flights that are leisure oriented.
What do you make of Delta launching Marrakech flights?
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