MOROCCO – Morocco’s flag carrier, Royal Air Maroc (RAM) has announced the signing of a codeshare agreement with British Airways.
Royal Air Maroc explained that the new agreement will create new routes across Morocco including Casablanca and Agadir that will provide customers with more convenience and flexibility.
The airline further revealed that the agreement will also offer flights with flexibility between London Heathrow and Marrakech, RAM said in a statement.
A codeshare agreement allows two or more airlines to share the same flight. According to Maghreb Arab Press, the agreement with RAM is the first agreement of its kind for British Airways with an African airline.
It will provide daily access to Royal Air Maroc’s hub in Casablanca, currently not directly served by British Airways and will offer “more choice of services between Heathrow and Marrakech,” the press release from RAM said.
British Airways will also have an added advantage of using Casablanca, a perfect hub for connections onto other Royal Air Maroc destinations, including a range of African destinations from Abidjan, to Freetown in Sierra Leone, and Morocco’s Agadir.
British Airways’ Head of Alliances, Chris Fordyce, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Morocco’s flagship airline, Royal Air Maroc to create our first African codeshare agreement.”
The agreement, according to Fordyce, will also connect the company’s “extensive global network to new destinations in Africa.”
RAM’s CEO Hamid Addou also commented on the new agreement, saying that the deal confirms RAM’s “ major role as a key player connecting Africa to the rest of the world.”
“We are very pleased with this cooperation which will foster our traffic development and ease the access to both our companies’ networks on both ends,” Addou said.
Addou also revealed that both RAM and British Airways customers will be able to “earn loyalty points when flying on either carrier.”
In addition to its agreement with British Airways, RAM also signed a codeshare deal with American Airlines last year.
British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom and the second largest airline in the United Kingdom, based on fleet size and passengers carried.
British Airways serves over 160 destinations, including eight domestic and 26 in the United States and is a founding member of Oneworld airline alliance where RAM is also a member.
