Print
Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä
Category: Air & Sea Air & Sea
Published: 06 December 2018 06 December 2018

Royal Air Maroc is to join oneworld®, adding one of Africa’s leading and fastest growing airlines to the world’s premier airline alliance.

Royal Air Maroc is expected to be implemented into 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 is today the largest unaligned carrier in Africa – with a transformational strategy well underway to develop it quickly into a truly global airline and the continent’s leader in terms of both size and quality. Its schedule today 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.

It will also be the alliance’s first new full member airline signed since 2012. Fiji Airways was also linked to the alliance from December 5 as its first oneworld connect partner, the first new membership platform since the alliance was established.

oneworld CEO Rob Gurney noted: “When we unveiled our new membership platform oneworld connect in June, we said that in the future oneworld would target as full members large airlines that have a significant presence in the alliance’s prime target market, providing connections between the world’s leading business centres. Royal Air Maroc is growing into a truly global airline, with its home base Casablanca to be developed into Africa’s leading aviation gateway while also consolidating its place as Africa’s number one financial centre.”

Royal Air Maroc carried 7.3 million passengers last year on a fleet of 55 aircraft, with a network that currently connects its Casablanca base with 94 destinations in 49 countries across Africa, Europe, the Middle East and North and South America, including oneworld hubs Doha, London Heathrow, Madrid, Moscow Domodedovo, New York JFK and Sao Paulo.