Rabat – Following the increase in EasyJet’s daily slots in Lisbon airport, Switzerland’s low-cost carrier announced a new route connecting Lisbon to Marrakech on Wednesday.
In a press statement, EasyJet shared its plans to introduce the Lisbon-Marrakech route on October 31, 2022.
Sales for the twice-weekly flights to Marrakech will be launched on August 15.
Additional connections between the Portuguese capital to Spain, France, the UK, Switzerland, Italy, and Portugal will be available in the upcoming winter as well.
As EasyJet expands its operations in Lisbon, the company plans to increase its Airbus A321neo fleet at the airport of the Portuguese capital to up to 19 aircraft, allowing the low-cost carrier to launch 21 new routes and increase frequencies to eight countries.
Through this investment, EasyJet seeks to become the second largest airline in Lisbon after Tap Air Portugal, with 21 domestic and international routes. The airline also plans to provide 1.72 million seats available for sale this winter season from and to Lisbon, marking a year-on-year increase of 61%.
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Jose Lopes, EasyJet’s Country Manager for Portugal, said: “We are particularly happy to be bringing the A321neo to Lisbon which will contribute to making our operations more sustainable.”
The neo aircraft is expected to reduce the airline’s fuel consumption by 15% as well as cut noise during take-off and landing by 50%.
“Despite the challenging external environment, we’ve never stopped investing in Portugal in the last two years, opening a new base in Faro in 2021 and continuously launching new routes from both Lisbon and Porto [Santo] throughout the period,” Lopes added.
As the global aviation sector gradually recovers from the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, Easyjet reached 87% of its pre-pandemic capacity in the third quarter of 2022, with 22 million passengers using the carrier services over the same period.
Like EasyJet, Morocco’s National Airports Office (ONDA) reported this month an increase in passenger flow as airports across the country welcomed more than 7.4 million passengers and 70,680 flights in the first half of 2022.
The surge in people’s mobility in Morocco and across borders served the country’s tourism sector which was severely hit by the pandemic. By June, Morocco’s tourism revenues saw a 123.3% year-on-year growth estimated at MAD 13.6 billion ($1.32 billion).
As airline companies expand their footprint in Morocco, the North African tourism sector is expected to gradually return to pre-COVID-19 levels.
