Rabat – Irish low-cost flights airline Ryanair is expected to indefinitely end its operations in Morocco amid a complete halt in international flights.
Morocco-oriented news outlet Maghrib Intelligence cited sources that indicate that Ryanair is considering leaving the Moroccan market, effective next Monday. The reports come amid a backdrop of the company expecting a net loss of €250 million, leading the company to cut flights in many markets.
The company had previously announced in December it was suspending flights until February 2022, citing “lack of communication from the side of the Moroccan government.”
The Moroccan authorities’ decision to close borders affected 160,000 customers, the airline estimated.
In a statement, the company expressed their uncertainty as to whether Morocco will allow flights to resume after the two-week travel ban.
Reports suggest that the company is planning to withdraw from Morocco’s market in May. But the official version appears to be that the company has requested meetings with the Moroccan tourism ministry for reassurances over some of its concerns.
The company has notably complained about Morocco’s last-minute travel ban, saying that the sudden closure of borders only added to its concerns given that it pays millions of euros monthly to finance its operations in Morocco.
A Ryanair staff member who preferred to speak under the condition of anonymity told Morocco World News that the company and the Irish embassy have been attempting to contact Morocco’s authorities to secure authorizations to carry out special flights.
“Moroccan authorities did not respond neither to Ryanair nor to the Irish embassy,” the source said.
The Rynair employee said the closure of borders had led to losses for the company since 2020, emphasizing that rumors regarding the low-cost firm’s withdrawal from the Moroccan market went viral among the company’s staff.
Earlier this month, the Moroccan National Association of Travel Agencies (ANAVM) held a sit-in near the Ministry of Tourism.
ANAVM said that “travel agencies feel abandoned to their fate after two years of this suffocating crisis.”
Tourism professionals have been sounding the alarm that Morocco’s strict handling of the Omicron wave will affect the tourism industry long after the restrictions are lifted.
They told Arab News that the November border shutdown will make it harder for them to promote to Morocco as tourism will continue to worry about the possibility of split-second decisions to close borders.
Travel agencies’ personnel have also expressed concerns regarding the continued closure of borders.
Ibrahim, a personnel in charge of a travel agency in Rabat told Morocco World News: “Agencies do not work when borders are closed… tourism transportation, hotels, travel agencies and guides are the most damaged from this measure.”
The November decision triggered widespread dissatisfaction as many viewed it as unjustifiable in the light of the high vaccination rate in the North African country.
With over 50% of the population fully vaccinated, tourism professionals believe that the travel ban was unnecessary and only affected the long-term prospects of Morocco’s tourism sector as tourists will now flock to rival destinations around the Mediterranean sea.
The decision to ban flights will continue to weigh down on Morocco’s economy as the tourism industry accounts for 15% of the country’s GDP, according to for-profit US ratings agency Fitch Ratings.
Morocco’s government has repeatedly stressed the need for the ongoing travel ban amid a global record surge of COVID-19 cases. On January 10, the world reached a morbid record of nearly 20 million daily cases recorded in a single week, more than four times as high as previous peaks in infections worldwide.
