Royal Air Maroc Considers Halving Fleet Amid COVID-19 Financial Crisis

Presenting the situation of the tourism sector before the House of Representatives, the Minister of Tourism announced that the drop in air traffic in 2020 is causing financial losses that threaten jobs within the airline, reports Medias24.

According to a source close to the air transport department, RAM first wants to know the content of the Amending Finance Act before developing a plan to resume its activities. This relaunch will not spare either the jobs or the current fleet of the national carrier. According to the same source, the top management of Royal Air Maroc is waiting to know its fate with the government, as part of the Amending Finance Act, before speaking out.

Pending more details on the content of the draft law, RAM believes that this date will be known very soon. If the State is content to give 1 or 2 billion DH to RAM, there will be many sacrifices at stake as this could change the company’s development plan, we are told.

For the same media, the State should condition its support on reducing, for example, the size of the fleet by half as well as that of the company. "Indeed, if RAM keeps 30 planes out of 59, it will no longer need a workforce of 5,000 people (direct jobs and subsidiaries) and will perhaps have to reduce its staff by 2,500 or even 3,000 people," specifies the same source.