Royal Air Maroc Unveils Expansion Plan for Europe and Africa, Eyes New Aircraft

The rise in fuel prices, the incomplete economic recovery of activity after the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian war are far from shaking Royal Air Maroc. The company is displaying its growth ambitions. According to Abdelhamid Addou, CEO of RAM, a new growth strategy has been adopted to transform the national airline into a global connector between Africa and Europe during the post-Covid period. In an interview with Flightglobal in Doha, the manager said that RAM is preparing to launch a new tender for the acquisition of 22 regional, short-haul and long-haul aircraft.

The ambition of the company, he will say, is to become a global connector between Africa and Europe. To achieve this, the national carrier must "invest more in the acquisition of aircraft [and] have an airport with a much larger size and more efficient customer quality and experience," he added. The company also intends to prioritize the digitization of its services and systems and work with unions to improve its "efficiency and productivity".

As a member of Oneworld, RAM has not yet reached the level of the other members of the alliance. The national carrier is convinced that its new growth strategy will enable it to cope with the competition from low-cost carriers that dominate 80% of the domestic market. "We should end the year at around 90% of our 2019 network," Addou said. "By early 2023, we would have recovered our network."