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Rabat- Morocco’s airports are predicted to resume their normal passenger traffic by 2024, with a gradual improvement starting from next year, according to a recent report issued by the Ministry of Economy.
By 2022, the movement of passengers’ through Moroccan airports is expected to increase by 60%, further increasing to 80% by 2023. “Stabilizing at its normal level and coming close to the performance recorded during the pre-COVID-19 pandemic is expected to reach 25 million passengers by 2024, the same as 2019,” noted the report.
The Moroccan airport’s pace decreased by over 71% between the period of 2015 and 2019.
In 2018, passengers’ movement through Morocco’s airports recorded about 22.5 million passengers, before it increased to 25 million in 2019, and decreased to only 7.7 million in 2020.
According to the Ministry of Economy’s data, the net result of Morocco’s National Office of Airports (ONDA) has decreased from MAD566 million ($62 million ) in 2019 to MAD 1.9 billion ($ 209 million) last year.
By the end of this year, predictions indicate that the passenger transaction number would reach MAD 2 billion ($ 220 million), representing an increase of 31% compared to last year.
To face the crisis, ONDA has developed a strategic plan. The office is preparing to invest over MAD 5 billion for the period from 2022 to 2024, mainly to be allocated in order to expand and upgrade projects in the airports of Rabat, Tangier, Agadir, Dakhla, Tetouan, and El Hoceima.
The first quarter of 2021 shows a 78% drop in tourist arrivals, representing 230,000 tourists, compared to the same period in 2020, according to figures announced by the previous Minister of Solidarity and Social Development, Jamila El Moussali.
The decreased number of tourists was equivalent to Morocco losing MAD 5.3 billion ($601.71 million) in revenue from tourism, a drop of 69% on a year to year basis.
But the tourism sector in Morocco appears to be recovering slowly, as the country is gradually returning to the level of the pre-pandemic era.
Tourism revenues experienced a significant increase of 15.2% in June 2021, reaching MAD 12.9 billion ($1.4 billion) between June to August, compared to MAD 4.8 billion ($53 million) and MAD 24.1 billion ($2.6 billion) recorded in 2020 and 2019, respectively.
