Royal Air Maroc joins oneworld as full member

Royal Air Maroc has joined oneworld as the airline alliance’s first full member from the African continent. This addition makes the airline the first new recruit in six years and comes as the alliance prepares to celebrate its 20th anniversary. While the new member was announced as Chief Executives of the alliance’s 13 current member airlines met in New York for their year-end Governing Board meeting, the inclusion is not immediate.

Royal Air Maroc is expected to start flying as a member of  oneworld in mid-2020. Regional subsidiary Royal Air Maroc Express simultaneously joins as a oneworld affiliate member.

Benefits for Royal Air Maroc passengers

Once the inclusion takes place the two airlines will offer the full range of oneworld customer services and benefits. This will allow the one million plus members of Royal Air Maroc’s Safar Flyer loyalty programme able to:

• earn and redeem rewards on all oneworld member airlines
• top tier members can use the alliance’s more than 650 airport lounges worldwide

Different types of oneworld membership

This move jumps Royal Air Maroc ahead of Southern Africa’s Comair, which flies as a franchisee of British Airways and has been a oneworld affiliate member since the alliance launched in February 1999. Royal Air Maroc will be oneworld’s first full member from Africa, the only continent, apart from Antarctica, with no full member.

Apart from this affiliated membership, Fiji Airways links to the alliance from today as its first oneworld connect partner. This is the first new membership platform since the alliance was established.

Royal Air Maroc is today the largest unaligned carrier in Africa. The airline has a transformational strategy underway to develop it quickly into a global airline. They aim to become the continent’s leader in both size and quality. The airline uses 55 aircraft to connects its Casablanca base with 94 destinations in 49 countries across Africa, Europe, the Middle East and North and South America. These include oneworld hubs Doha, London Heathrow, Madrid, Moscow Domodedovo, New York JFK and Sao Paulo. A 5 year expansion plan will see an expanded fleet carry passengers to 121 destinations in 68 countries. 

Three established oneworld member airlines currently serve three destinations in Morocco. Between them British Airways, Iberia and Qatar Airways offer services to Casablanca, Marrakech and Tangier.