The next Notam from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation indicating the lifting or not of air traffic in Morocco will be made public on October 10. A decision that airlines and professionals in Marrakech are eagerly awaiting to consider a resumption.
Air Algérie is struggling, notes the Algerian president. As a solution, Abdelmadjid Tebboune wants a change in the management of the company, in order to make it competitive internationally, particularly vis-à-vis Royal Air Maroc.
Tourism Minister Nadia Fettah Alaoui says that the projects to resume tourism in Morocco, including the abolition of the PCR test requirement, are under evaluation. This was during the videoconference organized by the CFCIM last Thursday.
The battle to relaunch tourism in Morocco is being waged on two fronts, domestic and international. An international call for tenders has been launched, and three global communication agencies are working on the project and will submit their work in mid-October.
Royal Air Maroc is at war with airline pilots. After the dismissal of 65 pilots, the company has just seized the courts in order to dissolve the Moroccan Association of Airline Pilots.
The Moroccan Association of Airline Pilots (AMPL) is angry. In a press release, it denounces certain media that accuse Moroccan airline pilots of being in collusion with trade union bodies representing Algeria and South Africa.
The Moroccan government has extended the state of health emergency until October 10, 2020. As a result, regular flights to and from Morocco operated by Royal Air Maroc and Air Arabia will not resume before the set date.
After the B737 MAX crisis, the American manufacturer Boeing is now being denounced for a second, with the identification of manufacturing defects on the B787 Dreamliner, an aircraft that is part of the Royal Air Maroc fleet.
For the first seven months of 2020, both Moroccan imports and exports of goods recorded year-on-year declines of 17.5% and 17% respectively compared to the same period last year.
In Morocco, passenger traffic has fallen sharply in the first half of this year, down 57.5% compared to the same period in 2019 due to the health crisis related to Covid-19.
140 staff members, including 65 pilots, have been laid off. A second phase of economic layoffs is announced for the coming weeks, with millions of dirhams in severance pay for the pilots at the end.
The circumstances of the crash of the two-seater plane near Kénitra will be elucidated by an investigation just opened by the BEA.