Royal Air Maroc Limits Umrah Flight Bookings, Frustrating Moroccan Travel Agencies

"Normally, we would make requests to the airlines that offered us quotas of either a group of 50 people or 40 people. This year, that is no longer the case. The maximum that RAM has provided is 20 tickets," complained Mustapha Aouzir, owner of a travel agency and member of the National Association of Travel Agencies of Morocco in an interview with SNRTnews. "In addition to the increase in the proposed rates, it should be noted that so far no additional flights have been scheduled by either Royal Air Maroc (RAM) or Saudi Arabia," he added.

Abderrafie Azzouzi, the owner of a travel agency, had also expressed concerns. "For the moment, there are only regular flights. The seats are limited and almost impossible to find, because a large part of the seats have been booked. Even if the demand is not significant, the seats are not available. Agencies that have already sold Umrah packages risk returning the passports to their clients," he said.

Responding to the concerns of travel agencies, an official from Royal Air Maroc assured that the national airline is not the source of the lack of flights for Umrah. "RAM covers one-third of the supply, while the other two-thirds are managed by other international companies, including those from Saudi Arabia," he said. More explicitly, the Moroccan company covers one-third of the flights to Saudi Arabia, a Saudi company covers the other third, while the remaining third is divided between two companies, one from the Emirates and the other from Turkey.

The same RAM official also confirmed that the company has scheduled additional flights for pilgrims this year at reasonable prices. "The prices we have provided are set at 12,000 DH, while competing international companies have scheduled the same flights at prices around 14,000 dirhams," he said.