Air Arabia (Morocco) to start operations between Casablanca and Alexandria | Al Bawaba

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Air Arabia (Morocco) to start operations between Casablanca and Alexandria

Published September 7th, 2010 - 09:38 GMT

Air Arabia announced today that it will start direct services to the Egyptian city of Alexandria, from the carrier's second hub in Mohamed V Airport, Casablanca. Egypt represents the 12th destination on the Air Arabia's growing network from Morocco. The airline will start its flights to Alexandria on October 4th, 2010.

Roundtrip flights will initially operate three times per week flying to Alexandria every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. On October 31st, flights will operate four times per week every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday departing Casablanca at 15:00 PM arriving in Alexandria at 21:40 PM. Return flights will depart Alexandria at 22:25 PM arriving in Casablanca at 02:00 AM. The new Alexandria– Casablanca route will also connect with Air Arabia (Maroc) network, especially to Europe.

Mr. Adel Ali, Group Chief Executive Officer said: 'We are delighted to announce the start of our flights to Alexandria. In one year since the start of Air Arabia (Maroc) operations, we have been able to organically grow our destination map and fleet. We are confident the new services between Casablanca and Alexandria will offer customers a great value for money to travel between the two cities.'

Air Arabia launched operations from its second hub in Casablanca, Morocco in April 29th, 2009. The airline currently serves direct flights from its base in Casablanca to the cities of Montpellier, Brussels, Paris, Lyon, Istanbul, Milan, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Bologna, Basel and Venezia.

Air Arabia fleet consists of brand new Airbus A320 aircraft offering its passengers best economy configuration in the market with 32' seat pitch as well as all inclusive free baggage allowance. The carrier offers customers comfort, reliability, and value for money air travel from and into The Moroccan city of Casablanca.

Morocco’s airports handle record 1.6 million passengers in July; passenger numbers up 15% in first seven months

TAP Portugal has taken advantage of the growing Moroccan market and launched a route between Lisbon and Marrakech in June. The strongest growth has, however, been recorded in Fez, Nador and Tangier where Ryanair and Spanair have launched routes this spring.

Being on the periphery of Europe appears to be an advantage at the moment, at least when it comes to generating air travel (just look at Turkey). Morocco, in no small part thanks to its ‘open-skies’ deal with the European Union, is continuing to report impressive passenger traffic growth across its airports in 2010. In each of the last three months (May, June and July), traffic has grown by between 15% and 20%. Even in ‘volcanic April’, passenger numbers were up almost 8%.

Source: ONDA

Casablanca remains the country’s dominant airport, accounting for just over 49% of all air passenger traffic in the first seven months of 2010. Passenger numbers have grown by 14.6% to just over four million. Overall, year-to-date growth across all airports is also, coincidentally, 14.6%. The fastest growing airports are Fez (39.2%), Nador (37.3%) and Tangier (21.8%), while the relative laggards are Agadir (+8.3%) and Rabat (-2.4%). New scheduled routes started this year include London Stansted to Fez (Ryanair since 4 May), Pisa to Fez (Ryanair since 7 April); Barcelona to Nador (Spanair since 18 April), and Brussels Charleroi to Nador (Ryanair since 9 April).

July demand reaches all-time high

Last month, Morocco’s airports handled a record 1,587,234 passengers up almost 20% on last July, and beating the previous record set last August of under 1.4 million.