Royal Air Maroc Largely Unaffected by Algeria’s Airspace Ban, Experts Say

"Even if flying through Algeria would have saved a total of 26 RAM flights time, the latter seems to have preferred in several cases to operate a certain number of detours. This is notably due to an Algerian air navigation charge deemed too high," comments Jeune Afrique, noting that the Algerian decision does not truly impact the airline. According to an aviation specialist, "well-versed" in the national airline, by flying over Spain, Royal Air Maroc (RAM) could even achieve economies of scale, due to the higher number of flights passing through Spanish airspace.

Following the Algerian decision, RAM announced the rearrangement of 15 weekly flights to Tunisia, Turkey and Egypt. Only these flights use Algerian airspace. The pan-African magazine explains that the detours suffered have little impact on the duration of the affected flights. Consequently, the increase in costs is minimal. As an example: flying at an average of 850 km/h, for a Casablanca-Istanbul, it takes about 40 minutes more, 30 minutes for a Marrakech-Tunis and 11 minutes for a Casablanca-Abidjan, a less significant difference for a Marrakech-Cairo.