Morocco Archives – London Air Travel

Royal Air Maroc To Join Oneworld Alliance

Royal Air Maroc is to join the Oneworld alliance from mid-2020.

Royal Air Maroc joins the Oneworld alliance

Royal Air Maroc is to be the next full member of the Oneworld alliance from mid-2020.

The announcement was made today, Wednesday 5 December 2018, at a press conference in New York. Its regional subsidiary Royal Air Maroc Express will also join as a Oneworld affiliate member.

This means that members of Oneworld alliance frequent flyer programmes will be entitled to earn miles and tier points/status credits and receive reciprocal recognition when flying on Royal Air Maroc.

Royal Air Maroc’s principal hub is in Casablanca. The airlines flies to Casablanca from Gatwick and Heathrow daily. From Casablanca, it serves a signifiant number of destinations in West Africa. This includes a number of routes previously suspended by BA including Freetown, Luanda and Monrovia.

It has a fleet of 55 aircraft, with Boeing 737-800 and Embraer E190 aircraft operating short and medium-haul routes, and Boeing 767 and Boeing 787-8 aircraft operating long-haul routes. The airline does have ambitious plans to grow its fleet and network, and also plans to revamp its brand image and aircraft interiors.

Co-operation between Royal Air Maroc and Oneworld has been expected for some time. It already codeshares with Iberia and Qatar Airways. It was also announced more than two years ago that it was due to adopt the Avios currency. This has not happened yet, possibly due to IT issues.

BA did fly from London Heathrow to Casablanca until October 2012 after it inherited the route from bmi. It may well reinstate the route to offer onward codeshares with Royal Air Maroc.

Earlier this year, Oneworld introduced a new form of membership Oneworld Connect. Fiji Airways is the inaugural Oneworld Connect member. Under Oneworld Connect membership only a limited range of benefits are offered to customers of Oneworld airlines and full Oneworld benefits, such as earning of frequent flyer miles, are offered to sponsoring airlines.

In terms of other prospective members of Oneworld, Alaska Airlines has confirmed it is looking at Oneworld Connect membership. Aer Lingus may also rejoin the alliance after it joins the transatlantic joint-venture with American Airlines, BA, Finnair and Iberia.

BA launches London Heathrow – Marrakech

British Airways is to fly from London Heathrow Terminal 5 to Marrakech four times weekly from Sunday 28 October 2018, complementing its existing service from London Gatwick.

London Air Travel » Morocco

Marrakech, Morocco. (Image Credit: British Airways)

British Airways is to fly from London Heathrow to Marrakech from Sunday 28 October 2018.

Flights will operate four times weekly on Thursday to Sunday from London Heathrow Terminal 5 to Marrakesh Menara Airport until Saturday 30 March 2019.

Flights will be operated with Airbus A320 aircraft in a two class, Club Europe business class, and EuroTraveller economy configuration.

This is not the first time BA has flown to Morocco from London Heathrow. It inherited this route from bmi in 2012, before suspending it in October of that year..

It is relatively rare for BA to announce new routes to Africa, a region where BA and its parent IAG is relatively weak. Morocco based airline Royal Air Maroc, which like BA has a joint business with Qatar Airways, was due to become an Avios partner some years ago. However, nothing has come of this yet, possibly due to IT issues.

BA also flies to Morocco from London Gatwick eight times a week. It is of course possible to “mix and match” London departure and arrival airports, if that is convenient.

The exact flight times vary by day, but flights typically leave London Heathrow between 09:25 and 11:00, and return from Marrakech between 13:50 and 15:15.

BA has also announced a number of changes to its Winter schedule at London Heathrow which are detailed in full here.

Flights are on sale now at ba.com

BA suspends Heathrow – Agadir from 26 October 2014

London Air Travel » Morocco

British Airways Tailfin (Image Credit: Nick Morrish/British Airways)

British Airways has announced it is to suspend its twice weekly service from London Heathrow to Agadir from 26 October 2014.

No specific reason has been given for the cancellation. However, we assume that poor commercial performance is a factor.

This was a route inherited by BA from its takeover of bmi in 2012 and is one of many subsequent route cancellations.

These include Damascus (29 May 2012), Addis Ababa (10 June 2012), Dammam (16 September 2012), Bishkek, Khartoum (1 October 2012), Tehran (12 October 2012), Yerevan (13 October 2012), Amristar, Casablanca, Marrakech (28 October 2012) and Tbilisi (31 March 2013).

Affected passengers have the option of a full refund or flying to Marrakech from London Gatwick or Casablanca via Madrid. No direct alternative route is available.