Government-owned Royal Air Maroc, based in Casablanca, would fill a huge gap for oneworld in Africa. British Airways offers limited service, and Qatar Airways serves several destinations, but Western Africa especially would become much more reachable inside the alliance.
Royal Air Maroc currently flies to New York JFK, Washington Dulles, and Montreal using Boeing 787s. In April they’ll add American Airlines hub Miami.
The only way to search Royal Air Maroc award availability online is to sign up for the airline’s frequent flyer account and then search on their website. You don’t need miles in your account. But the website is really clunky. I don’t usually bother because,
- Award space is usually available for two passengers
- So I just call assuming it’s available
Iberia lets you redeem Avios for travel on Royal Air Maroc. If your Iberia account has had activity in it and has been open 90 days you can transfer British Airways Avios to Iberia. Or you can transfer directly into Iberia from American Express Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards.
New York, Washington Dulles, and Montreal flights are 100,000 miles roundtrip for business class. This new Miami flight is over 8000 miles roundtrip so would run 150,000 miles.
Copyright: zhukovsky / 123RF Stock Photo
Royal Air Maroc already has a joint venture with oneworld members Qatar. They partner with Iberia. Their other major frequent flyer partnership is with Etihad Guest. However it’s long been expected that they’d make Avios their mileage currency.
Earlier this year oneworld added Fiji Airways as a limited member (“oneworld connect”).
oneworld is about to celebrate its 20th anniversary. They have their governing board meeting next week in New York. Will any news come out of that? I’d at least love to see an alliance-wide promotion for frequent flyers to sample their different airlines.
Do you think they’ll do anything significant with this 20 year milestone? Royal Air Maroc would give the alliance their first member in Africa, and the airline has been inching closer to oneworld members already. If this happens look for American Airlines to start Boeing 767 service to Morocco from Philadelphia.
@ Gary — Replacement for QR?
They have a JV with QR, they’re linked with IB which is part-owned by QR, I’d think this was being done in conjunction with them — and certainly not a last-minute move. Royal Air Maroc for instance announced Miami service (oneworld hub) prior to al-Baker’s comments about wanting to leave the alliance (which seemed mostly threats at first).
IMHO QR needs more global linkages, not fewer linkages, when it’s being blockaded by Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Not to mention they also fly to LATAM hub GRU, as well as GIG.
did Royal Air Maroc day anything specifically about joining an alliance? Because Philippine airlines did
@Adam
Interesting you mention that; has PR publicly done something with oneworld or partner airlines very recently?
Yes more connectivity to West Africa would be great but have you looked at their flight times? They are far from convenient …2am arrivals and 4am departures to for example FNA and ROB. Hopefully AT will retime them to better fit US connecting traffic.