Royal Air Maroc has announced plans to introduce Starlink Wi-Fi, making the Casablanca-based oneworld carrier the first in Africa to announce plans to roll out this service.
Free Starlink Wi-Fi coming to Royal Air Maroc
Royal Air Maroc plans to equip 41 aircraft with Starlink Wi-Fi, with installation expected to start as of early 2027. The service will be offered free of charge to all members of its Safar Flyer frequent flyer program (it’s not clear if you need to have your frequent flyer number on the reservation, or just need to be a member of the program).
It remains to be seen when the Starlink rollout Wi-Fi will be completed. In theory, Starlink Wi-Fi could be installed on 41 planes in a matter of weeks (United is installing Starlink on 20 planes per week at the moment), but understandably, smaller airlines typically aren’t that fast. Royal Air Maroc currently doesn’t offer any Wi-Fi on a vast majority of its aircraft, so this will represent a massive upgrade.
Royal Air Maroc’s fleet currently consists of around 70 aircraft, including ATR 72-600s, Embraer E190s, Boeing 737-800s, Boeing 737 MAX 8s, Boeing 787-8s and Boeing 787-9s. I’m not quite sure how they come up with the number of 41 planes, based on the fleet breakdown.
I’d assume that all Dreamliners, plus the 737 MAX 8s, will all get Starlink, and that brings us to 32 aircraft. Perhaps nine of the existing 737-800s will also get Starlink? Seems kind of random, but whatever.
According to Royal Air Maroc CEO Hamid Addou, “this agreement reflects a clear ambition: to offer our passengers a travel experience that meets the highest international standards.”
Starlink is known for its high-speed, low-latency broadband internet, and the service is offered gate to gate. Starlink Wi-Fi allows for live streaming, productivity similar to on the ground (with high upload and download speeds), gaming, e-commerce, and more.
Starlink is becoming increasingly popular with airlines, and we’ve seen dozens of carriers sign up for the service. As a passenger, having Starlink sure makes a big difference.
This is a (rare) positive initiative from Royal Air Maroc
It’s great to see an airline in Africa introducing Starlink Wi-Fi, because as mentioned above, no other airline in Africa has officially committed to Starlink yet.
One thing I do find interesting is how Royal Air Maroc is otherwise sort of “stuck” when it comes to its fleet growth and passenger experience:
- The airline has a fleet of 70 planes, with no additional next generation aircraft on order; the only other planes the airline has on order are two used Embraer E190s
- Royal Air Maroc has a wildly inconsistent customer experience; across the carrier’s Dreamliners, there are at least four business class configurations, between the custom built 787-8s with those awful “top/bottom” seats,” the ex-Xiamen Air 787-8s, the standard 787-9s, and the 787-9s intended for WestJet (at least all the 787-9s have the same general types of reverse herringbone seats, but with different configurations)
It’s just interesting to see an airline that has virtually no more planes on order, and no official plans to streamline things. Hey, I actually don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, necessarily, since this is efficient, and there probably wouldn’t be a return on investment in spending an endless amount of money introducing some cutting edge product.
But it’s quite a contrast to carriers like Royal Jordanian, for example, which are completely overhauling their fleet, introducing a new business class, etc.
Bottom line
Royal Air Maroc plans to introduce Starlink Wi-Fi as of early 2027, making it the first carrier in Africa to announce plans to install the service. Royal Air Maroc will offer Starlink on 41 planes, so presumably that covers all Dreamliners, all 737 MAXs, and some number of other 737s.
It’s great to see the airline making an investment in passenger experience, since it’s something we don’t otherwise see much of from the carrier.
What do you make of Royal Air Maroc’s Starlink plans?
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