Air Arabia Airline to Fly from Casablanca, Morocco to New York City
Wednesday, 10 November 2010 23:17
The surprise announcement came from the mouth of Mr. Adel Ali, CEO of Air Arabia, the low cost airline that is based in Sharjah in the UAE, during a business meeting in Dubai.
He envisions the upcoming destination between Morocco as an outright attack against the monopoly of Royal Air Morocco to the U.S. It flies to NY five times a week from Casablanca.
Royal air Maroc has been flying to the same NYC destination for about thirty years and was unable to expand its business to other cities in the US. RAM has had a bumpy ride lately because of its high prices and questionable service quality. It is estimated that a large percentage of fliers to Morocco from the US use other airlines and connect at cities through Europe.
Recognizing that the creation of this new route would take time, Ali said that the company was looking to expand, while expressing his satisfaction with the results obtained by its Moroccan subsidiary, Air-Arabia-Maroc, since its launch in 2009. He added, somewhat polemically: "It's difficult, Europeans are fighting against us and the French do not believe that our subsidiary is Moroccan."
Mr. Ali also confirmed that by mid-2011, his company will launch of a fourth subsidiary in Jordan, following those of Casablanca, Morocco, Alexandria, Egypt and Sharjah, UAE. The airline currently operates a fleet of 23 Airbus A320s and has orders for an additional 44 airchrafts – however, non of them capable of long-haul flights such as Casablanca - New York.
Air Arabia-maroc flies to 17 destinations, including Paris, Lyon, Montpellier, Basel - Mulhouse and Brussels with a fleet of four A320s.
Source : Air Journal
https://www.moroccoboard.com/news/34-...-new-york-city