Royal Air Maroc will invest $25 billion in doubling its fleet
Moroccan airline Royal Air Maroc has announced plans to invest nearly $25bn in quadrupling its fleet over the next ten years. In 2019, the airline owned 60 aircraft, although it sold several of them after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. With this new investment, its fleet is expected to reach 200 aircraft.
As indicated by its CEO, Abdelhamid Adou, Royal Air Maroc aims to acquire medium and wide-body aircraft. Adou also said that before the end of the year, the company will open the door to international companies to submit bids.
"We will knock on the doors of all our partners, banks and large companies to finance these deals," said the CEO of the company, which will grow from 50 to 200 aircraft. "That is an average of 15 aircraft per year, which is a lot for us, but we are very confident that we will reach this target," Adou explained.
The company's current fleet consists mainly of US Boeing aircraft. However, competitor Airbus is seeking an order for one of its models, according to an earlier statement by Hadi Akoum, the aircraft manufacturing company's vice president of sales for Africa.
This plan puts the Moroccan company on the road to regional competition, as well as positioning it as a connecting point between Europe and West African countries. In this regard, several analysts quoted by Al-Arab stressed that Morocco has a great opportunity in this sector because, unlike Dubai, Manama, Doha and Muscat, which compete to be the gateway to East Asia, there are no successful airlines in North Africa that can compete with Royal Air Maroc.
The Moroccan government is providing significant support to the airline in order to achieve these goals. For example, last July, Rabat decided to increase Royal Air Maroc's capital through an ambitious programme that will run until 2037.
Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch and the CEO of Royal Air Maroc, Abdelhamid Adou, signed an agreement by which "the Moroccan monarchy will double its air fleet". This contract also provides for an increase in the state's contribution to the company's capital.
According to the latest figures, the airline's capital amounted to some 370 million dollars in 2019, more than 98% belonging to the state. On the other hand, since 2020, state support to the company amounted to about 6 billion dirhams (less than $600 million). However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the airline experienced a series of losses.
