Marrakech – Sun D’Or, a subsidiary of Israel’s El Al, will begin operating direct flights from Tel Aviv to Marrakech on November 16, the carrier announced Tuesday. The service will run twice a week, on Mondays and Wednesdays, with round-trip fares starting at MAD 5,990 ($599).
The launch fare covers a LITE ticket, which includes only a trolley bag and carry-on luggage. Each leg of the route will take up to six hours. The first flight remains subject to final regulatory approvals.
Sun D’Or CEO Gal Gershon framed the route as a response to Israeli demand. “In response to demand, we will operate direct flights to Marrakech – an exotic city filled with markets, fascinating culture, and an atmosphere unlike anywhere else,” he noted, adding that the destination joins a winter map built for short getaways, scenery, ski trips, markets, shopping, and cuisine.
Marrakech will sit alongside 12 other winter destinations on Sun D’Or’s schedule, among them Larnaca and Paphos in Cyprus, Batumi and Tbilisi in Georgia, Tirana in Albania, Chisinau in Moldova, Belgrade in Serbia, Warsaw and Krakow in Poland, Salzburg in Austria, Lyon in France, and Verona in Italy. Tickets are available through the El Al website and travel agents, and frequent flyer members can earn and redeem points and diamonds on the flights.
With the move, the El Al group joins two Israeli carriers already back on the route. Arkia became the first to restore direct Israeli service to Marrakech since October 7, 2023, bringing forward its planned August 24 launch and operating its inaugural flight on August 19.
Transportation Minister Miri Regev joined that flight. Arkia now operates two weekly services, on Mondays and Wednesdays, with fares initially advertised from $329 one way.
Israir followed on September 1 with a once-weekly Tuesday service, initially scheduled to run through the end of October, with fares starting at $299 one way.
Its return, however, proved uneven: Israir moved to suspend the Marrakech route after encountering delays over the necessary flight rights, with sources at the airline attributing the disruption to “operational difficulties with Morocco.” The impasse lasted roughly two weeks before the required authorization was secured and service could resume.
Service was reportedly cleared to recommence only after direct and intensive intervention by senior Israeli officials, including Minister Regev and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, alongside Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority and the Israeli liaison office in Morocco, which helped secure the required authorization.
All air links between the two countries collapsed after October 2023, when Israel launched its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and Israeli carriers pulled out of the route. Travel between the two did not stop entirely – it reverted to indirect connecting flights, the only option available before direct service began.
Direct flights first opened under the December 2020 normalization agreement that restored ties between Rabat and Tel Aviv.
Morocco has consistently framed that process less as a new opening than as the renewal and re-establishment of longstanding contacts, given earlier low-level diplomatic relations and the large Moroccan-Jewish community with enduring ties to the kingdom. In the year before the genocide, Moroccan Tourism Ministry figures put the number of Israeli visitors at around 200,000.
The new route also lands days after a diplomatic push in New York. On Wednesday, a day after the sixth anniversary of the Abraham Accords, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar met his Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita in a meeting hosted by US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz. The two governments agreed to reinstate direct flights by both Israeli and Moroccan carriers before the end of the year.
The same meeting produced a wider set of commitments. Sa’ar and Bourita agreed to appoint ambassadors and upgrade their missions to full embassies, to hold high-level visits in the coming months, and to conclude investment-protection and double-taxation agreements by the end of 2026.
“The declaration we signed today outlines practical ways to upgrade ties between Israel and Morocco for the benefit of both peoples, and we will work to implement it,” Sa’ar noted.
A trilateral statement with Washington reaffirmed US and Israeli recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the entire Western Sahara. Defense cooperation has also continued, with the two countries signing a joint military work plan for 2026 in January at the third meeting of their Joint Military Committee.
