Journal du Cameroun
The inaugural flight connecting Casablanca to Beijing is scheduled for January 16, the Moroccan flagship carrier Royal Air Maroc (RAM) revealed to APA. This new service, whose flight time is around 12 hours, is the airline’s maiden direct line on the Asian continent.
It is the only scheduled public passenger regular air flight serving China from the Maghreb and West Africa.
The flights will take place three times a week and will be operated by Boeing Dreamliner 787-9 aircraft.
Flights from Casablanca will be scheduled on Monday, Thursday and Saturday.
Return flights will leave Beijing on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday.
Initially scheduled for June 2015, before it was postponed, following the delay in the delivery of the 789-9 Dreamliner, the new direct Casablanca-Beijing flight will give new impetus to trade between Morocco and China.
This will notably spare thousands of Moroccan businessmen long journeys with connections, provided by other companies, such as Emirates, Air France, Qatar Airways, etc.), the only airliners available so far to join the kingdom from Beijing.
This flight will allow Chinese tourists, whose influx has taken unprecedented proportions since the waiving by Morocco of visas for Chinese nationals, to travel to Morocco via a direct flight.
Morocco is providing incentives in the Chinese market, the main source of tourists in the world and aims to attract at least 500,000 Chinese tourists per year.
There is no longer any doubt that the Chinese market has become a priority for the kingdom in order to boost the tourism sector.
In that regard, Morocco has taken various initiatives meant to achieve ambitious objectives it has set for the sector.
