During the inauguration ceremony, marked by the presence of several foreign diplomats, the Minister of Tourism, Crafts and Social and Solidarity Economy, Fatim-Zahra Ammor, indicated that this new air base will connect Rabat to several European destinations, including Paris, Istanbul and Brussels.
In this sense, she stressed that the city of Rabat is experiencing great growth in tourism, recalling the importance of air connections in the 2023-2026 tourism roadmap.
Ms. Ammor also specified that the ministry will deploy more efforts with international airlines to achieve the objective of 17.5 million tourists by 2026.
For her part, the General Director of Air Arabia Maroc, Laila Mechbal, affirmed that this new base will make it possible to launch 14 weekly international flights and add 3 internal flights for the Rabat-Agadir line, to reach 7 weekly flights.
Regarding international flights, she noted that Air Arabia has 5 flights to Paris, 3 to Barcelona, 2 to Brussels, 2 to Basel and 2 to Istanbul.
For his part, the head of the operations division at Rabat-Salé airport, Tayeb Meziane, indicated that the airport is experiencing significant dynamics, noting that during the first four months of 2024, it welcomed 484,890 passengers increasing by 35% compared to the same period of 2023.
To respond to this air traffic dynamic, a new terminal is being built at Rabat Salé airport, providing the capital of the Kingdom with a modern and benchmark infrastructure with a capacity of 4 million passengers per year, a- he added.
Rabat Salé Airport is served by 7 airlines (Royal Air Maroc, Air Arabia Maroc, Ryanair, Air France, Tui Fly Belgium, Transavia France and Easy Jet), operating 115 weekly frequencies and connecting the airport to 21 international air routes : Paris Orly, Madrid, Marseille, Brussels, Paris CDG, Charleroi, Montpellier, Barcelona, Basel, Istanbul, Malaga, Seville, Rome Ciampino, Paris-Beauvais, Toulouse, Düsseldorf Wezze, London Stansted, Nice, Lyon, Nantes and Geneva, in addition to two domestic connections with Agadir and Errachidia.