Denver- With a new era of Israeli-Moroccan relations, comes new business opportunities for companies in the travel industry. El Al became the second Israeli airline to announce direct flights to two major cities in Morocco.
In a statement released by El Al on Friday, the company announced starting next month it will begin offering flights from Ben Gurian International Airport in Tel Aviv, to Mohammed V airport in Casablanca, and Menara airport in Marrakech. The inaugural flight date is set for July 25th.
El Al stated that the “flights to Morocco would take about five hours each way, and ticket prices would start at $499 for a round trip.” The renormalization of ties between Morocco and Israel last year, coupled with the beginning of Morocco’s annual repatriation event Operation Marhaba, has been the focal point for many businesses in both countries.
The agreement, which was signed between the US, Morocco, and Israel last year, makes Morocco the sixth member of the Arab League to share normalized bilateral ties with Israel. Israeli and Moroccan companies have looked to appeal to the substantial Moroccan Jewish population living in Israel that will likely be travelling and investing between the two countries given the improved political climate at the moment.
Despite the lack of formal ties prior to the 2020 agreement, Moroccan Jews reportedly still accounted for a sizable amount of clandestine revenue for both countries. According to a report by Middle East Eye, Israel had “$37m worth of commerce with Morocco in 2017,” and the nations had “$149m worth of trade between 2014 and 2017,” despite Morocco not acknowledging this economic relationship.
It is clear then, that this business relationship has been well established, and with formal ties now established, major companies like El Al will be pivoting to take advantage of the now government sanctioned economic relationship between both nations.
Recently, a third Israeli airline, Arkia, also announced it will be launching routes to Morocco starting August 3rd in response to its competitors in the Israeli airline industry.
