Summary
- African airline Royal Air Maroc has committed to purchasing two additional 787-9 Dreamliners from Boeing to expand its long-haul network and take advantage of favorable market conditions.
- Royal Air Maroc has a long-standing partnership with Boeing and has been operating Boeing aircraft for most of its existence.
- The airline is also looking to further expand its fleet and has expressed interest in quadrupling its size before 2037.
African airline Royal Air Maroc has added to Boeing’s storming first day at the Dubai Airshow 2023, with a firm commitment for an additional two 787-9 Dreamliners. The order was previously listed in Boeing’s orders and deliveries as an ‘unidentified customer,’ but was revealed today in the final hours of day 1 of the 2023 airshow.
Abdelhamid Addou, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Royal Air Maroc, commented on the order, saying,
“The two Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners will enable Royal Air Maroc to expand in the short-term its long-haul network in response to the highly favorable market conditions in 2023.”
Royal Air Maroc already operates a small fleet of nine Dreamliners, split between five 787-8s and four 787-9s. The choice of the larger variant of the Dreamliner is telling, as the carrier is clearly enjoying the higher capacity that the bigger aircraft provides.
55 years of RAM and Boeing
Royal Air Maroc has been a solid customer of Boeing’s aircraft for most of its existence. Launched in 1957 with DC-3s, Bretagnes, and Laguedocs, the airline added Caravelles and Constellations in its early years, but made its first order with Boeing in 1969. RAM took delivery of its first Boeing, a 727-200, in 1970, and began building out its Boeing fleet from there. By 1976, the Caravelles were withdrawn from service, and the airline became all-Boeing.
Over the years, it has flown the 707, 727, 757, 767, and 747 (-200 and SP) as well as just about every variant of the 737 family. It took delivery of its first 787-8 in 2014, and added the 787-9 in 2018, according to data from ATDB.aero. Now, it continues on its fleet renewal push, bringing in more Dreamliners to allow it to grow in an efficient manner.
Brad McMullen, Boeing’s senior vice president of Commercial Sales and Marketing, commented on the partnership, saying,
“The 787 Dreamliner is perfectly suited to support Royal Air Maroc’s growth and modernization plans. Boeing’s relationship with the airline spans more than five decades, and we look forward to more opportunities to strengthen our partnership with Royal Air Maroc.”
Growing even more
While some of RAM’s buying spree has been about fleet replacement and renewal, it is also looking to expand. The airline recently signed a leasing deal with ALC for five more Boeing 737s, four of which will be the MAX 8. It said at the time that it was looking to procure ten new aircraft, including seven narrowbodies and three widebodies. But comments made by the CEO at today’s announcement seem to suggest there is still more to come. Addou noted,
“The company is actively pursuing a significant tender to quadruple the fleet before 2037.”
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying
Today’s Royal Air Maroc flies a total of 54 aircraft, all of them Boeing, apart from a handful of Embraer regional jets, a single ARJ100, and a half dozen ATRs. To triple the fleet would mean increasing it to around 150 aircraft, so we could yet see another big order from this interesting African airline.
Its relatively new status as oneworld’s first African airline will undoubtedly have opened up opportunities within the market for RAM, and it seems the airline is capitalizing on the huge demand for international flying we’re seeing in the wake of the pandemic. The question remains, will it stick with its all-Boeing strategy, or could we see a switch to Airbus for the higher capacity of the A350 in a future order?
Source: ATDB.aero