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Join on Telegram Rabat – Morocco’s national airport office reports a decline in traffic that is unprecedented and significant, despite the slow return of normalcy to the country.
Amidst the health crisis, the number of travelers is declining despite recent openings of air borders.
New data from the National Airports Office (ONDA) elaborates on aerial activity in the country.
Moroccan airports recorded a volume of commercial passenger traffic of 2,473,988 travelers during the first half of 2021, compared to 11,669,548 passengers during the same period in 2019, observing a decline of 78.8%, according to ONDA.
According to the same source, Moroccan airports registered 476,542 passengers during the period of June 15, 2021 – the first day of resumption of flights – to June 30, 2021, when 4,704 flights operated with international arrivals and departures.
In comparison with the same period of 2019, this figure represents 45% of international passenger traffic.
ONDA’s report indicates that passenger traffic decreased to 80.60% nationally compared to March 2019. While aircraft movements also decreased 71% compared to the same period.
Morocco’s airports experienced significant decreases relating to commercial traffic volume in comparison to the same period in 2019. The report included data per airport, allowing for a comprehensive look at each airport’s traffic in the country.
The Mohammed V airport in Casablanca, which accounts for almost half of global passenger traffic since the resumption of international flights, recorded a decline of close to 76% compared to the same period in 2019, and a decrease of 42.62% compared to the same month in 2020.
This amounts to 192,610 passengers in 2021 compared to 798,972 travellers in March 2019, and 335,675 in March 2020.
There was a 58% decline in the number of passengers passing through the Tangier Airport Ibn Battouta, the second ranking airport in terms of passengers nationally, receiving 41,399 passengers as opposed to 97,748 passengers in March 2019 and 51,711 passengers in March 2020.
Despite the nationwide decline, the Marrakech-Menara Airport was the most impacted by the pandemic.
The number of passengers transiting through Marrakech-Menara International Airport decreased by 92.82% compared to the same period in 2019.
The international Marrakech airport received 225,875 passengers in March 2021. In comparison, it received 1,353,731 travellers during the first half of 2020, and 3,146,234 travelers in early 2019.
Since the resumption of flights last June, the volume of commercial passenger traffic of the international airport Marrakech-Menara has shown a decline of 71.16% compared to the same period of 2019.
This airport was also ranked second nationally in terms of commercial traffic, with 715 aircraft movements.
As the sanitary crisis evolves, Morocco continues to update its flights by categorizing countries in two lists, lists A and B, announcing new measures for vaccinated travellers and deploying a variety of measures to facilitate travellers’ experiences to and from Morocco.
