Ra - Moroccan carrier Royal Air Maroc (RAM) is planning to launch a new route linking Casablanca to Rio de Janeiro next year, as Morocco seeks to attract more Brazilian tourists.
Ra – Moroccan carrier Royal Air Maroc (RAM) is planning to launch a new route linking Casablanca to Rio de Janeiro next year, as Morocco seeks to attract more Brazilian tourists.
The new Casablanca-Rio de Janeiro service will be officially launched on May 2, 2016. It will be added to RAM’s existing flights into Brazil on a triangle routing alongside Sao Paulo.
RAM will operate a twice weekly Casablanca – Sao Paulo – Rio de Janeiro – Casablanca flight and a single weekly Casablanca – Rio de Janeiro – Sao Paulo – Casablanca flight
Starting on September 11, 2016, the second route will get an additional weekly flight, boosting the overall schedule to Brazil to four times weekly, all flown using Boeing 767-300ER equipment.
RAM is currently the only airline to offer flights between Morocco and Brazil, having introduced flights between Casablanca and Sao Paulo in November 2013.
Its launch of the direct route helped grow origin and destination demand between the two countries from around 8,000 annual passengers in 2012 to almost 15,000 in 2013 and over 21,000 last year.
The news comes as Morocco is seeking to attract more Brazilian tourists in the coming four years.
Morocco’s news agency MAP quoted Abdellatif Achachi, an official from the national tourism office, saying that Morocco is expected to receive over 100,000 Brazilian tourists by 2019.
“Morocco hosted nearly 22,000 Brazilian tourists in 2014 and expects that number to reach 27,000 tourists in late 2015,” he concluded.