Marruecos estrena el primer vuelo directo entre Casablanca y Tel Aviv
Morocco's national airline Royal Air Maroc launched on Sunday the first direct flight between the cities of Casablanca and Tel Aviv, Israel, after the first attempt failed on 12 December due to the closure of borders decreed by the Alawi kingdom in the face of the harsh impact of the pandemic aggravated by the increase in cases caused by the Omicron variant.
According to a statement from Royal Air Maroc, several officials from the economic and cultural sectors of the Alaouite kingdom flew to Tel Aviv to hold meetings with Israeli authorities with a view to deepening political, economic and cultural relations between the two countries. The Casablanca-Tel Aviv route aims to facilitate transport between the two countries for all interested Moroccan travellers and businessmen.
"We are pleased to inaugurate this direct route to Tel Aviv, the first in the history of the national airline," said Hamid Addou, CEO of Royal Air Maroc, in the official statement. Addou noted that the Moroccan airline offers its customers direct flights between Morocco and Israel "in less than five hours with a unique travel experience on board our airline," as also reported by Morocco World News.
Israelis who were also on the inaugural flight posted pictures of the event on social media. The deputy head of the Israeli mission in the Moroccan capital of Rabat, Eyal David, showed pictures of the interior of Mohammed V Airport and others of the plane on the social network Twitter and commented: "Currently at Mohammed V International Airport: launching the first flight of Royal Air Maroc, which will connect Casablanca with Tel Aviv," as reported by Al-Arab.
Royal Air Maroc will schedule four flights per week on this new route between Casablanca and Tel Aviv, priced at around 400 euros. Flights will take off from Casablanca on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at 23:55 (Moroccan time) with arrival in Tel Aviv at 06:15 (local time). Meanwhile, flights from Tel Aviv will depart on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays with take-off at 07:15 (local time) and arrival in Casablanca at 12:10 (Moroccan time), as reported by Morocco World News.
"This new route aims to meet the expectations of the Moroccan community in Israel, which has strong ties with its country of origin. It also aims to enable tourists, as well as businessmen and women, to travel to Morocco or Israel," Royal Air Maroc said in the official release.
Morocco, which is also home to a large Jewish community considered the largest in North Africa, expects to attract some 200,000 Israeli tourists, up from around 50,000 last year.
The director of the Israel Liaison Office in Rabat, David Govrin, appealed on Twitter to "our Moroccan brothers to visit Israel, discover its culture and take into account the great place that Morocco and Moroccans hold in the hearts of Israelis".
The Israeli airline El Al inaugurated a direct flight to Marrakech at the end of July, but flights were suspended due to the border closures.
The development of the link established between Morocco and Israel is thus continuing, thanks to the mediation of Donald Trump's former US administration, which gave its support to the Kingdom's formula for resolving the Saharawi conflict, based on broad autonomy for Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty, in exchange for the North African nation establishing political and commercial relations with the Israeli state. This move came in the wake of the Abraham Accords, which were signed in September 2020 and which enabled several Arab states such as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, also under the auspices of Donald Trump's government.
Following this, Morocco and Israel have been signing agreements and memorandums of understanding in various fields that have served to promote commercial, cultural and even arms exchanges, which is very important for Morocco's defence sector, as Israel has extensive development in arms and technology in this regard.
