MOROCCO – World’s largest airline, American Airlines and Morocco’s flag carrier, Royal Air Maroc (RAM) have submitted a codeshare request to the US government which if successful, will enable the Texas based American carrier penetrate the growing Africa air travel market.
According to a Dallas Business Journal, the two airlines submitted the request in November 2019 and their collaboration aims to give American Airlines the opportunity to expand its operations in Africa.
One of American Airline’s spokesman was quoted by the journal saying that the goal of the partnership between the airlines and Morocco’s national carrier is “to offer customers additional options to reach more destinations in Africa like Marrakech, Accra and Lagos.”
The move by the US-based airline to deepen ties with Royal Air Maroc comes at a time when it is also planning to start serving a seasonal air route linking Philadelphia with Casablanca whose inaugural flight is scheduled for June 4, 2020.
The three flights a week seasonal air route which is expected to last till September 8, 2020 will be served by one of the company’s Boeing 757. The route will be the first flight for American Airlines in Africa.
“Our customers and team members have been asking when we’re going to start service to Africa, and I couldn’t be more pleased to make this announcement for service beginning in 2020,” said Vasu Raja, America’s Vice President of Network and Schedule Planning.
Quoted by Dallas Business Journal in August, Raja said that through the partnership with Royal Air Maroc, the company can “connect customers to a number of destinations in Africa.”
Raja added that in future the company was open to the option of launching non-stop flights from a US hub to regions of high customer demand in Africa.
American Airlines, Inc. is a major American airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex.
As of November 2019, American Airlines flies to 95 domestic destinations and 95 international destinations in 55 countries in five continents, soon to be six when American launches their flight to Casablanca from Philadelphia in June 2020.
It is the world’s largest airline when measured by fleet size, revenue, scheduled passengers carried, scheduled passenger-kilometers flown, and number of destinations served.
American whose workforce currently stands at about 130,000 people, flies more than 200 million passengers annually to more than 200 destinations and is a publicly traded company with a market capitalization of about US$12.7 billion.
