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Mohamed Hikal
Rabat – Passengers at the Menara airport face lengthy lines at passport control upwards of three hours sometimes. Complaining travelers have been posting negative reviews about the low-quality of service and unprofessionalism of some airport employees.
“This airport is a disorganised mess. We arrived and there was no proper queuing system. It took two hours to get through passport control after there being two supposed queues into the main queuing system and people cutting in front of me,” an outraged British traveler wrote on Thursday on the Airline Quality website.
He went on to complain of the airport’s border personnel: “I think I found the reason for such queue though as the man who checked my passport didn’t even acknowledge I was there as he was too busy on his Facebook on his phone. Absolutely disgusted with this airport and such attitude.”
Another British traveler posted his review on the airport’s customer feedback site earlier this month: “A beautifully dramatic airy building, but queue at immigration was completely unacceptable: the worst I’ve ever encountered in 35 years of flying regularly all around the world! It took us 3.5 hours to get from back of queue to an immigration officer’s kiosk.”
He noted that previous reviewers expressed the same frustration “which the airport seems unwilling/unable to do anything about.”
An American agreed that the passport control process was too slow immigration, saying it would be a “deterrent” to visit Marrakech. He called on those in charge to add more employees to make the process faster.
Following a petition by tourism investors and professionals, Karim Kassi-Lahlou, governor of the Marrakech-Safi region, convened a meeting this month with airport staff to find solutions to maintain smooth administrative and security measures and boost tourism in the red city and the economy of the country as a whole.
According to the 2018 tourism statistics released by the Ministry of Tourism, 1.2 million tourists arrived through Marrakech’s Menara Airport between January and July. Licensed accommodation establishments recorded 4.7 million overnight stays.
