Iberia’s Chairman and CEO, Luis Gallego, and Royal Air Maroc CEO, Abdelhamid Addou, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to broaden the cooperation between the two airlines, during the ongoing state visit of Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia to Morocco.
The airlines, which have cooperated for a number of years in several areas, have agreed to extend and increase this cooperation as Royal Air Maroc joins the oneworld alliance, of which Iberia has been a member since September 1999.
Among the links that both airlines want to strengthen are, the code-sharing agreement, currently available on flights between Morocco and Spain, that both airlines would like to extend to other African destinations. The two airlines will also broaden their loyalty programme agreement to offer more benefits to their frequent passengers.
In addition, Iberia’s Casablanca operation will be transferred to T1, which is also used by Royal Air Maroc, to facilitate and speed passenger connections.
Luis Gallego, Iberia’s Chairman and CEO, said “Morocco is an important market for Iberia, both because of its proximity and because of our cultural links. Royal Air Maroc’s entry in oneworld will enable us to continue to work together to offer more destinations and services to our customers”.
Iberia currently operates 46 flights a week between Madrid and the Moroccan cities of Casablanca, Marrakesh and Tangiers. In the upcoming summer season, it plans to raise capacity on these routes by 32% in ASKs. In 2018, Iberia carried 8.7% more passengers than the year before. Most of the traffic is point-to-point, but the feeder traffic from countries like the United States, France, and Switzerland is of growing importance.
