By Bruna Garcia Fonseca/ANBASão Paulo – Royal Air Maroc, the Moroccan airline, is adding a frequency from São Paulo to Casablanca next December or January. This will bring weekly São Paulo-Morocco flights to four, plus two leaving from...
By Bruna Garcia Fonseca/ANBA
São Paulo – Royal Air Maroc, the Moroccan airline, is adding a frequency from São Paulo to Casablanca next December or January. This will bring weekly São Paulo-Morocco flights to four, plus two leaving from Rio de Janeiro, making up a total of six Brazil-Morocco frequencies a week.
The airline also entered into an agreement with One World – one of the biggest global alliances, comprising Latam, Qatar Airways, American Airlines and others. The deal is expected to become effective by the end of H1 2020.
“We have signed it, but now we must integrate the systems, the mileage, the data… It takes time, but by June, everything will probably be connected,” Royal Air Maroc sales manager told ANBA during Abav Expo, a travel industry show taking place until Friday (27) at Expo Center Norte, in São Paulo.
Alruiz said the alliance will add connectivity to stopovers in Brazil and across Latin America. “The company will certainly grow a lot. Clients will get the ease of checking in two 23-kg luggage items and carry one 10-kg handheld item, since the connection flight. For instance, it they depart from Porto Alegre (RS) to take the flight in São Paulo, the luggage will be included in the final, one-off ticket price. That will cut costs for passengers,” he said. The São Paulo-Casablanca flight takes about eight hours.
Morocco
Besides Royal Air Maroc, Morocco’s stand, the highlight of Abav Expo, featured 11 Moroccan tour operators and the Casablanca Regional Travel Agencies Association, comprising 15 operators. “We wish to increase stand size and bring even more companies next year,” said Abdellatif Achachi, director-general of Morocco’s Official Tourism Delegation to Brazil and Portugal. “In 2018, we exceeded 53,000 arrivals of Brazilians in Morocco, a 19% increase from 2017,” he said.
Achachi at Morocco’s stand
In 2011, according to Achachi, there were only 12,000 arrivals. “We nearly quintupled Brazilian tourist numbers in these seven years,” he said. This year, however, the director pointed out an obstacle to growth. “The crisis in Brazil meant less tourism to all destinations, including Morocco, because the dollar and the euro have gained so much. We’ll be glad to see 1% this year,” he claimed.
The director said he has a target of seeing Brazilian tourism to Morocco increase by 15% a year. “For the coming years, the target still stands,” he said.
Apart from the fair, a B2B event was held on the 24th, with 22 Brazilian and 27 Moroccan operators, to further cement Morocco’s position as a destination for the Brazilian industry. “It was a total success. We’d never had an event like this before. Now, with the B2B and the fair, we’re striking up partnerships for next year,” he revealed.
For Achachi, the fair is a great opportunity for Moroccan operators to do business. “The stand is above all a business platform for the operators, to help bring in Brazilian tourists and to do more business. That’s our main goal,” he concluded.
Original Source: https://anba.com.br/en/royal-air-maroc-adding-sao-paulo-casablanca-frequency/
