Royal Air Maroc Faces Backlash Over Soaring Summer Ticket Prices to Morocco

Airfares between Canada, the United States and Morocco range between 23,000 and 26,000 dirhams (about 2,100 to 2,400 euros) during the summer period, while they do not exceed 10,000 dirhams (about 900 euros) the rest of the year. Compared to the prices charged by other airlines serving the same destinations, those of Royal Air Maroc (Morocco) are too high.

A "state of dissatisfaction and indignation" prevails within the Moroccan community abroad, says Naima El Fathaoui, a deputy of the Party of Justice and Development (PJD), in a question addressed to the Minister of Transport and Logistics, Mohamed Abdeljalil. Feeling "deprived of the possibility of traveling to their country of origin and reuniting with their loved ones," some of them have launched a petition on the Change.org site - already more than 8,600 signatures collected - to call on the Ministries of Transport and Tourism to intervene for a reduction in ticket prices. For their part, the parliamentarians would like to know the measures the government is taking to solve this problem and promote the mobility of Moroccans living abroad.

During the meeting of the group responsible for preparing the annual session to evaluate public policies in the field of tourism at the end of May at the House of Advisors, Mohamed Abdeljalil tried to justify the surge in ticket prices offered by RAM. "Domestic transport has declined because the Royal Air Maroc (RAM) company was forced to return a number of aircraft during the Covid-19 crisis at the request of the previous government for financial reasons." From his explanations, it appears that the previous government had asked RAM to put 10 aircraft back on the market, to ensure financial balance, as it was unable to financially support the company to purchase these aircraft during the Covid-19 pandemic. Today, Royal Air Maroc (RAM) is in the process of recovering these aircraft. But the purchase of these aircraft will be more expensive for the company due to a significant shortage of aircraft on the global market. Their acquisition in this context of high prices does not allow the company to offer affordable airline tickets, and consequently, the planes will not be full, the minister feared.