Meknès was supposed to have Morocco’s largest airport, but 70 years later the project is still on the table

With around 560,000 inhabitants, Meknès is an exception in Morocco’s airport network. As reported by TelQuel, the city has dreamed of having its own airport since the 1950s. The project envisioned at the time was particularly ambitious: according to the magazine, it was supposed to become Morocco’s largest airport.

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Meknès’s aviation history was already well established. American diplomatic archives show that, in December 1950, the city was among the sites covered by a Franco-American agreement concerning the development of infrastructure for air bases in Morocco.

A few months later, the civilian project clearly emerged. In October 1951, Le Monde mentioned a military runway and a fighter school in Meknès, as well as the planned construction of two civilian airfields, one in Fès and the other in Meknès.

Fès took off, Meknès remained grounded

The two cities subsequently followed very different paths. Today, Fès has Fès-Saïss International Airport, with a 3,200-metre runway and an announced capacity of 2.5 million passengers per year. Meknès, meanwhile, is still not part of the Office national des aéroports’ network of civilian airports.

Yet the city has never lost its connection with aviation. The archives of the Service historique de la Défense notably preserve maps and plans of Meknès air base covering the period from 1946 to 1957. The city’s fighter school served for a long time to train pilots before being transferred to France in 1961.

More than 70 years after the first civilian airport projects, the situation therefore remains paradoxical. To take a flight, Meknès residents must notably turn to Fès-Saïss. ONDA also lists Meknès among the destinations accessible by taxi from Fès airport, at a stated fare of 400 dirhams.

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A reality far removed from the ambition expressed in the early 1950s: to make Meknès one of Morocco’s major airport hubs.