Royal Air Maroc bets big on USA and Canada this summer
Royal Air Maroc has up to six daily flights bookable to the US and Canada between June and September, returning to what it had in the same period in 2019. It comes as many more flights were added in the past week, with New York JFK rising to twice-daily and Montréal not far behind. Washington Dulles nears once-daily, and Miami grows too.
Morocco’s flag carrier is in an optimistic mood. In the latest schedule submission available via Cirium, Royal Air Maroc has added 40% more flights to the US and Canada this summer. It now has 245,748 seats to sell, up from 177,480 last week. As you’d expect, the main changes concern mid-June to early September, the peak summer season.
The following is bookable in mid-August, with flights rising gradually to these levels. With up to six daily departures in mid-August, outbound flights will be back to the same number available in 2019.
- Casablanca to JFK: twice-daily (10-weekly by the B787-9 and four by the B787-8)
- Montréal: 12 weekly (six each by the B787-8 and B787-9)
- Washington Dulles: six-weekly (four by the B787-8, two by the B787-9)
- Miami: three-weekly (all by the B787-8)
5% more flights between June and September
Across the whole June to September period, there are 5% more flights than in 2019, Cirium shows. Royal Air Moroc is probably bullish but is undoubtedly helped by its growing US seat load factors (see the following figure).
Fares seem to have improved or be near where they were. For example, booking data shows that, in Q3 2019, the average one-way fare for passengers transiting from JFK over Casablanca was $392. In Q3 2021, it was $408. However, Washington remains down. The reverse is true for point-to-point traffic: JFK is lower while Dulles has increased.
Royal Air Maroc is probably not overly optimistic, as things appear to be going in the right direction. But to be sure, we’ll have to wait to see whether further changes are made and for traffic and fare data to be available after the summer.
Up to six daily departures to North America
The following is available on August 14th. Notice the two early morning departures, returning to Morocco just before midnight the same day. These are key not just for P2P traffic but also to feed more destinations across West Africa, including Accra, Lagos, and Freetown. When combined with the afternoon schedules, they enable two-way connections to such cities with a reasonable connection time.
AT202: Casablanca to JFK, 07:20-10:10; AT203: 12:10-23:59 AT206: Casablanca to Montreal, 08:05-10:25; AT207: 12:10-23:40 AT200: Casablanca to JFK, 15:50-18:40; AT201: 20:40-08:30+1 the next day AT218: Casablanca to Washington: 16:05-19:30; AT219: 21:30-09:50+1 AT204: Casablanca to Miami, 16:30-20:25; AT205: 22:25-11:40+1 AT208: Casablanca to Montreal, 17:30-19:50; AT209: 21:35-09:05+1
