Air transport: Hard recovery!

It was to be predictable. November was one of the best months in terms of air traffic. The airports of the Kingdom recorded, during the month of November, a commercial traffic volume of 1.9 million passengers and 15,341 airport movements, i.e. recovery rates of 96% and 92% respectively compared to the same period of 2019. With 552,953 passengers, the Marrakech Menara airport posted a recovery rate of 97% in November.

The All-Saints holidays and the resumption of cultural and other events including the Marrakech International Film Festival have contributed to this improvement. The mild climate during this period is a strong argument in favor of the airport of Agadir which recovered 108% of its traffic in November. As main tourist destinations, these two cities rely heavily on the winter season. In terms of markets, Europe, the Middle and East Asia, as well as North America posted recovery rates exceeding 100%. As a reminder, Europe represents more than 83% of international air traffic with 1.4 million passengers in November alone, i.e. a recovery rate of 101% compared to November 2019. Cumulatively (for the 11 months), passengers from Europe have exceeded 13 million since the reopening of borders. The same situation applies for airport movements which posted a recovery rate of 92% in November. This traffic reached 157,687 airport movements for the first eleven months, which represents 82% of airport movements recorded during the same period of 2019. Overall, Morocco’s airports are struggling to recover traffic from 2019, the reference year. One month from the end of the year, the volume of passengers was 18.4 million compared to 23 million in 2019 (domestic flights and international flights), i.e. a recovery rate of 80%. Cumulative international traffic since the beginning of the year reached 16.5 million passengers, representing a recovery rate of 81%. The Marrakech Menara airport, which is the airport of the first tourist destination, achieved a lower rate, namely a rate of 74% with 4.3 million passengers versus 5.8 million in 2019. Agadir as an airport and as a destination recovered 86% of its traffic compared to 2019. It must also be said that the reopening of the borders took place during the second week of February, and the companies only began to gradually program their flights at the end of February, which means almost two months lost during this recovery year. On the other hand, other infrastructures such as the airports of Oujda and Tangiers have completely recovered their passengers and their rotations during these last 11 months. The Tetouan airport is even performing better since it has gone from 39,154 to 168,843 passengers.

Badra BERRISSOULE