In under 15 years, Royal Air Maroc (RAM) wants to quadruple in size, which seems quite optimistic…
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Royal Air Maroc wants to fly 200 aircraft globally
Royal Air Maroc and the Moroccan government have signed a contract with the joint goal of massively growing the national airline, and increasing air service connectivity to several parts of Morocco. Just how lofty are Royal Air Maroc’s goals?
- In 2019, the airline operated a fleet of 60 aircraft, carried 7.5 million passengers, and served 93 destinations
- By 2037, the airline hopes to operate a fleet of 200 aircraft, carry 31.6 million passengers, and serve 143 destinations
Note that since 2019, Royal Air Maroc has shrunk considerably, and the carrier’s fleet is now down to under 50 aircraft. So Royal Air Maroc’s goal is to quadruple in size over the next 15 years, taking delivery of an average of more than 10 new aircraft per year. That also assumes that no existing aircraft will be retired, even though the backbone of the carrier’s fleet is the 737 NG, and they’re an average of 15 years old.
As you can tell, Royal Air Maroc wants to quadruple its fleet, but only increase the number of destinations by just over 40%. That’s because the oneworld carrier’s plans are heavily focused on new long haul service. Here are the details that we know so far:
- Through 2027, Royal Air Maroc plans to expand in Africa, Europe, the Americas, and Asia, with new routes to Abuja (ABV), Amman (AMM), Beijing (PEK), Beirut (BEY), Guangzhou (CAN), Johannesburg (JNB), Los Angeles (LAX), Manchester (MAN), Munich (MUC), Nairobi (NBO), Naples (NAP), N’Djamena (NDJ), Rio de Janeiro (GIG), Sal (SID), Sao Paulo (GRU), Tripoli (TIP), and Zurich (ZRH)
- Then through 2037, the airline plans to focus on adding new long haul service out of airports other than Casablanca, including routes from Rabat (RBA) to New York (JFK), as well as routes from Marrakech (RAK) to Boston (BOS), Buenos Aires (EZE), Chicago (ORD), Delhi (DEL), Kuala Lumpur (KUL), Lima (LIM), Mexico City (MEX), New York (JFK), San Francisco (SFO), Seoul (ICN), Shanghai (PVG), Tokyo (NRT), and Toronto (YYZ)
My take on Royal Air Maroc’s expansion plans
To Royal Air Maroc’s credit, Morocco has great geography in terms of being a global airline offering connecting service. The airline can even attract passengers traveling between Europe and other non-African destinations, given Morocco’s geography. Furthermore, Royal Air Maroc has a great cost advantage over nearby airlines in Europe, given labor costs in Morocco.
Furthermore, I’m happy to see that Royal Air Maroc plans to offer long haul service directly to Marrakech, which is more popular than Casablanca with visitors. Many people may consider booking Royal Air Maroc if they can fly nonstop to Marrakech, as connecting in Casablanca isn’t any easier than routing through any major European gateway for these purposes.
All that being said, a plan to quadruple in size without lighting money on fire just seems like a pipe dream. And it’s a pipe dream that has to be maintained for nearly 15 years.
Do I think there’s room for Royal Air Maroc to grow a bit and serve some new long haul markets? Absolutely. But this level of growth is almost unheard of, and I can’t imagine the government is willing to spend the amount required to make something like this a reality.
Royal Air Maroc currently has a fleet of nine Boeing 787s, so I guess we should expect an order for dozens of new long haul jets in the coming years…
Bottom line
Royal Air Maroc has unveiled plans to grow hugely by 2037. Specifically, the airline wants to increase its fleet from around 50 aircraft to around 200 aircraft, while adding service to… well, just about everywhere. Royal Air Maroc’s plan seems highly optimistic to me, but it sure would be nice to see this oneworld airline grow even just a moderate amount, particularly with long haul flights to Marrakech.
What do you make of Royal Air Maroc’s growth plans?
Bring Back Boston.
Having just flown through Casablanca, that airport desperately needs modernization even before considering such massive growth plans.
I'd like to see them fly to Dallas so the airport can join the 6 continent club
Happy to hear this coming from a recent OneWorld member airline. However, I'm surprised not to see DFW on this list. Seems like a no-brainer to add not only their partner AA's largest hub, but also OneWorld is headquartered there as well. Also I would "assume" that DFW (and the Texas/South/Midwest/Southwest that it draws from) would be a better fit for traffic than many of the cities listed.
Turkish isn't exactly a great connecting point from the US to Europe, but people use it because the product is good and the points sweet spot is excellent. I could see RAM being a nice use of points to places like Barcelona or Rome. I've looked into it as an alternative to Iberia, TAP, and Flying Blue. I do wonder if part of these expansion plans requires capturing value from the US points market (it...
Turkish isn't exactly a great connecting point from the US to Europe, but people use it because the product is good and the points sweet spot is excellent. I could see RAM being a nice use of points to places like Barcelona or Rome. I've looked into it as an alternative to Iberia, TAP, and Flying Blue. I do wonder if part of these expansion plans requires capturing value from the US points market (it is certainly a way to smooth out demand while building a following with cash fares). RAM is a good redemption using AA Miles, but those are so hard to get. Another One World partner with excellent awards (and one could only hope -- less fuel surcharges) could be desirable.
Agree that with with Morocco's geography, they are a gateway to Africa, and not much else. Perhaps that doesn't matter if the fares are right, as we see with TAP. Between Europe, on the one hand, and Asia or North America or Oceania, Morocco is not on the way. For traffic between Europe and South America, Madrid and Lisbon are just as well positioned and have cultural ties.
Using RAM to drive tourism is...
Agree that with with Morocco's geography, they are a gateway to Africa, and not much else. Perhaps that doesn't matter if the fares are right, as we see with TAP. Between Europe, on the one hand, and Asia or North America or Oceania, Morocco is not on the way. For traffic between Europe and South America, Madrid and Lisbon are just as well positioned and have cultural ties.
Using RAM to drive tourism is a reasonable approach but would require direct flights to Marrakesh opposed to Casablanca.
They do not have great geography from an airline standpoint. What connecting traffic are they positioned for? US to South Africa? Not a huge market there. Everywhere else and Morocco is out of the way. This is typical state run flag carrier stuff, political decisions for prestige, with OPM on the line.
@ Mantis -- It's not great geography for all regions, but Morocco has a good location for traffic from both North and South America to Southern Europe, Africa, the Middle East, India, etc. It's very similar geography to Lisbon in that regard. That's not to say that it'll be very high yield or profitable traffic, but there are a good number of people traveling in these markets.
Ben is correct, Morocco is actually quite well sited as a connecting gateway to southern Europe, north Africa and the rest of Africa. It's directly on the way between Europe and South America and it's only a slight detour from the USA to places like Rome and Athens. Given the lower costs of doing business, the extra 15-30 minutes on an itinerary between North America and southern Europe will be ignored be most travelers.
And to add to the two points above, it should also be mentioned that they'd offer an actual business class seat on the regional connection, unlike most other European carriers
“Most other European” except Morocco isn’t in Europe. It’s in Africa.
Icarus: they are only comparing the general routes and hubs of Southern European carriers. They aren't being literal, but comparing, READ into the context next time. Lastly, I'd argue that Morocco is very close geographically to Europe as well as culturally. Look at the Iberian peninsula and many other parts of Europe that have cultural and historical ties to the MENA region as well.