“RAM will quadruple its air fleet, which will increase from fifty aircraft currently to two hundred aircraft over the next fifteen years”, we learn in a press release from the services of the head of the Moroccan government, Aziz Akhannouch. Beyond its desire to quadruple its air fleet by the end of the next decade, the Moroccan national company Royal Air Maroc (RAM) aims to change dimension and to do this, its leaders have presented an ambitious plan which has convinced the authorities. After years of waiting, the government has agreed to give it the means to achieve its ambitions, to match the giants Ethiopian Airlines and Turkish Airlines, but also to support the development of the tourism sector.
Mr. Akhannouch and the General CEO of Royal Air Maroc (RAM), Hamid Addou, signed an investment program contract in Rabat in order to respond to the tourism development plan which aims to attract 65 million visitors on the horizon 2037. That’s about six times as many visitors as today.
To this end, the State’s participation in RAM’s capital will be reinforced “as part of the government’s support for the company’s investment project […], the implementation of its development plan , supporting its competitiveness and digitizing and improving the quality of its services,” the statement said. The office of the head of government did not want to say how high. The amount of the investment plan was also not disclosed.
RAM – one of the first airlines in Africa – intends to acquire new aircraft in 2024 as part of the implementation of its development strategy, its CEO said at a press conference in Casablanca, quoted by the MAP news agency. “Through a new global business model, RAM will change in size for the benefit of the country, its economy and its influence, via an expansion plan that is based on a substantial development of its fleet and a redeployment of its operating strategy,” he explained.
Bailed out by the state in the aftermath of the pandemic, the national carrier also plans to open new international destinations and set up 46 other domestic services to promote domestic tourism.
At the international level, RAM is particularly targeting the African market, but also the American and Asian markets.
Finally, the air hub of Casablanca, megalopolis and economic capital of the kingdom, must strengthen its role as an international correspondence platform. Hard hit by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, tourism is one of the pillars of the Moroccan economy, providing tens of thousands of direct and indirect jobs. It recovered in 2022, with around 11 million tourists, a recovery rate of 84% of 2019 arrivals, according to official statistics.
The Cherifian kingdom intends to welcome 17.5 million tourists by 2026 for expected revenue of 120 billion dirhams (about 11 billion euros), indicates the Ministry of Tourism.