Morocco Awaits Decision on Resuming International Air Travel Amid COVID-19

"As long as there is no border opening and involvement of private clinics in the management of Covid cases, there will be no resumption of tourism in Marrakech," said the president of the National Confederation of Tourism (CNT). For the moment, only special flights are landing at Marrakech airport. Initially, these flights were chartered for Moroccans stranded abroad and students. The list has since been expanded to include professional visitors and foreigners with a reservation, reports L’Economiste.

These flights are operated by RAM, with 4 services from Paris, Air France with 7 flights and 7 others for Transavia (3 flights from Orly, 1 from Nantes, 1 from Lyon and two others from Amsterdam). In total, there are barely 18 weekly flights in addition to 6 domestic services landing at Marrakech airport, when it had more than 480 rotations per week before Covid, so far from the demand of local professionals, indicates the same source.

And then, the accommodation capacity of the ochre city (80,000) largely exceeds the air seats offered. All these reasons do not reassure the professionals, who fear a rather long recovery, even after the opening of the borders.

The pandemic has put the airlines in difficulty, those who have resisted want to be informed as soon as possible to schedule Marrakech. And it is now imperative for Marrakech, in addition to the opening of borders, to work on the health label to resume its activity. This involves accommodation establishments, all tourist services and comfortable hospital beds, the newspaper specifies.