Summary
- Royal Air Maroc serves Miami, Montreal, New York JFK, and Washington Dulles from its Casablanca hub.
- It has five to six daily flights to the US and Canada in July and August.
- Last year, the four routes had more point-to-point passengers than transit.
Royal Air Maroc (RAM) has the second-highest number of flights between Africa and North America. It is one of 12 airlines with non-stop or one-stop, same-plane, same-flight-number flights. It coexists with Air Algerie, Air Canada, Air Senegal, Air Transat (it has just started flying to Africa), Azores Airlines (yes, really), Delta Air Lines, EgyptAir, Ethiopian Airlines (the largest operator), Kenya Airways, Tunisair, and United Airlines.
RAM’s record offering
Let’s look at the peak summer months of July and August, with the highest demand and fares, helped by the holiday period. Examining RAM’s full schedule using Cirium data shows that the carrier plans up to 38 weekly departures (double for both ways) from its Casablanca hub to the US and Canada. There are five to six daily services. Naturally, all flights will be on its high-capacity, economy-heavy 274-seat Boeing 787-8s and 302-seat 787-9s.
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying
Analyzing RAM’s schedule from the past 20 years shows a record number of flights. They are up 8% compared to 2019, the previous record for those peak months.
It is different for seats for sale, which have fallen by 1.3% versus 2019. In the summer of 2019, RAM temporarily used wet-leased, high-capacity 777-300ERs from Qatar Airways to Montreal, which helped to plug the gap after retiring the 747-400. The average number of seats per flight to North America was 314 compared to 286 now. More than half of RAM’s flights are now on the lower-capacity 787-8.
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Four routes, up to six daily flights
They are summarized below. Based on booking data from last year, all four routes had more point-to-point passengers than those who connected. However, RAM’s schedules generally focus on two-way connectivity with its African flights to drive passengers and loads and to enable its frequencies. Starting June 23, cities will include Abuja, the Nigerian capital, for the first time.
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying
Of particular interest are its early morning departures to New York JFK (at 07:00) and Montreal (at 08:00). They are fed by RAM’s largest inbound network of African flights, which begin to land in Casablanca from around 04:15. The return services from JFK/Montreal are during the day, highly unusual for Africa. In addition to P2P traffic, they feed African flights that mainly leave Casablanca after 01:00.
|
Casablanca to… |
July/August flights* |
Departs from Casablanca |
Arrives in Casablanca |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Miami |
Four weekly 787-8 |
19:45 |
11:00+1 |
|
Montreal |
13 weekly to double daily 787-8, 787-9 |
08:00, 17:20 |
09:30+1, 23:55 |
|
New York JFK |
13 weekly to double daily 787-9, 787-8 |
07:00, 15:55 |
08:50+1, 23:55 |
|
Washington Dulles |
Six weekly 787-8, 787-9 |
16:20 |
09:35+1 |
|
* Each way. Aircraft variants are ordered by departures |
Where passengers went in 2023
Let’s look at RAM’s transit origin and destinations (O&D) over its Casablanca hub last year. According to booking data, more than 210,000 passengers transferred to/from the US and Canada.
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A colleague wrote this article in April.
Combining JFK, Miami, Montreal, and Dulles shows that most passengers connected to/from other places in Morocco, particularly Marrakech and Agadir. Egypt and Tunisia followed Morocco. At the airport level, Cairo was RAM’s top O&D to/from JFK, Madrid was for Miami, Tunis for Montreal, and Cairo was for Dulles.
Have you flown RAM long-haul? If so, share your experiences in the comments section.