Royal Air Maroc will join oneworld®.
Its election as a oneworld member-designate was announced when the chief executives of the alliance’s 13 current member airlines, gathered in New York for their year-end Governing Board meeting. The announcement came just weeks before the alliance celebrates the 20th anniversary of its launch.
Royal Air Maroc is expected to become part of oneworld in mid-2020 when it will start flying alongside some of the biggest and best brands in the airline business. Its regional subsidiary, Royal Air Maroc Express, will join as a oneworld affiliate member at the same time.
Royal Air Maroc
As part of the alliance, Royal Air Maroc will offer the full range of oneworld customer services and benefits; more than 1 million members of the airline’s Safar Flyer loyalty program will be able to earn and redeem rewards on all oneworld member airlines and with its top-tier members able to use the alliance’s more than 650 airport lounges worldwide.
While Southern Africa’s Comair, which flies as a franchisee of British Airways, has been a oneworld affiliate member since the alliance launched in February 1999, Royal Air Maroc will be oneworld’s first full member from Africa — the only continent, apart from Antarctica, where the alliance hasn’t had a full member.
It will also be the alliance’s first new full-member airline signed since 2012, although Fiji Airways links to the alliance starting today as the first partner of oneworld connect, the first new membership platform since the alliance was established.
Today, Royal Air Maroc is the largest unaligned carrier in Africa, with a transformational strategy well underway to develop it quickly into a global airline and the continent’s leader in terms of both size and quality.
Royal Air Maroc carried 7.3 million passengers last year on a fleet of 55 aircraft. The airline’s network currently connects its Mohammed V International Airport (CMN) base in Casablanca, Morocco, with 94 destinations in 49 countries across Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America, including oneworld hubs Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar (DOH); Heathrow Airport in London (LHR); Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suarez Airport in Spain (MAD); Moscow Domodedovo Airport (DME); John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York (JFK) and Sao Paulo International Airport in Brazil (GRU).
The airline’s schedule will add 34 new destinations and 21 countries to the oneworld map, taking the alliance’s network to 1,069 airports in 178 countries and territories.
Under Royal Air Maroc’s ambitious five-year strategy, it plans to expand its fleet significantly, carrying 13 million customers a year across a global network serving 121 destinations in 68 countries. This will add another 15 destinations and nine countries to the alliance network, giving the alliance a total of 1,084 destinations in 187 countries and territories.
Three established oneworld member airlines — British Airways, Iberia and Qatar Airways — currently serve three destinations in Morocco between them: CMN, Marrakesh Menara Airport (RAK) and Tangier Ibn Battouta Airport (TNG).
Royal Air Maroc CEO Abdelhamid Addou said, “Royal Air Maroc is excited and honored to have been invited to become oneworld’s wings of Africa. We look forward to completing our flight on board speedily and smoothly so that we can offer the services and benefits of the world’s best airline alliance to our customers and across our own network as soon as possible. We will be flying alongside the finest collection of air carriers in the skies, while at the same time making it easier for people all over the world to reach our historic and beautiful part of the world. This undoubtedly represents one of the most significant landmarks in our airline’s 60-year history and on our journey to establish Royal Air Maroc as the leading airline of Africa.”
Top Copyright Photo (all other images by the airline): Royal Air Maroc Boeing 737-8B6 WL CN-RGN (msn 33075) (50th Boeing 737) BRU (Karl Cornil). Image: 944645.
Royal Air Maroc aircraft slide show:
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