Morocco Savvy

Royal Air Maroc has suspended its flights to Guinea, where a state of emergency was declared last Monday.

The West African country has been the scene of heavy rioting since a new prime minister was nominated. At least 18 people are said to have died during clashes with security forces.

Royal Air Maroc says it has cancelled all flights from Casablanca to Conakry until at least next Sunday, February 18, to “guarantee the safety of our passengers”.

Update: Royal Air Maroc will resume its flights to Conakry from February 19, the company has told Moroccan news agency MAP.

The German consumer watchdog has pulled the plug on a website that offered cheap tickets to Morocco to Dutch customers.

The German-based website, Ufoflug.com, offers cheap flights from Spain, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands to Al Hoceima, Nador and Tangier. The Dutch language pages have been shut down by the German Consumer Protection Office after complaints from the Netherlands.

Dutch customers complained that Ufoflug.com registered and charged for bookings before these had been explicitly confirmed by visitors to the website. The site does not offer sufficient contact details and information about complaints procedures, as required under applicable laws in the Netherlands.

A Dutch consumers organization that investigated the complaints, noted that officials at Amsterdam airport were not aware of any of the flights sold through Ufoflug.com. The site sells flights fom Amsterdam to Al Hoceima and Nador.

Ufoflug.com claims that it sells tickets for flights that will be operated by Spanish charter airline Girjet. The website continues in German and Spanish.

• Take no risk: there are plenty of reliable, cheap flights to Morocco

Italian tour operator Alpitour will step up its promotion of Morocco and open new air routes between the countries.

Gruppo Alpitour, Italy’s largest tour operator, today signed a deal with the Moroccan government in which the group pledges to double the number of Italians who book a holiday in Morocco through its network of travel agents over the next three years.

Around 20,000 Italians booked a holiday in Morocco through Alpitour in 2006, out of total of 150,000 Italian tourists who visited the country that year. The government in Rabat hopes to triple that last number by 2010.

As part of the agreement, Alpitour will introduce new direct flights between the countries through its own airline Neos and buy extra seats on routes operated by Moroccan airlines Atlas Blue and Royal Air Maroc.

Neos is expected to open direct routes to Essaouira and Oujda, where massive beach resorts are being built under Morocco’s ambitious tourist development program. More routes are said to be under consideration.

The agreement aims to triple the number of Neos’ passengers to Morocco.

The deal with Alpitour follows similar agreements between the Moroccan government and tour operators like TUI, Globalia and Belgium’s JetTour and budget airline Ryanair.

• But not every agreement seems to work

Ryanair has cancelled all its services between Girona/Barcelona and Marrakech, which were due to start next month.

What on earth is happening at Ryanair? After the budget airline completely messed up its  Marseille to Morocco operations, it cancels all flights from Girona to Marrakech. The new route was to be launched on March 27.

Ryanair says it axed the service because they need their resources ”to accommodate 16 new routes” throughout Europe. The company also withdrew the planned route between Deauville and London Stansted.

A more likely reason for Ryanair’s decision is the stiff competition that’s taking shape in cheap flights between Spain and Morocco. Only a few days ago, Moroccan budget airline Atlas Blue announced it will fly from Barcelona to Marrakech from the end of March.

While Ryanair would have flown out of Girona Airport (a smart 90 minutes from Barcelona), Atlas Blue uses Barcelona’s El Prat airport, a 30-minute train ride from the city center.

The latest news is also a bit of a snub to the Moroccan government. Last year, Rabat and Ryanair announced a five-year agreement amid a lot of fanfare, with the airline pledging to open up to twenty new routes into Morocco.

At the time, one senior Ryanair executive hailed the deal as “a vote of confidence” in Morocco. By now, customers must be less impressed with Ryanair’s performance.

Ryanair continues to fly from London Luton to Fes and Marrakech.

• It’s good news for the competition, though

After Easyjet, Ryanair and Spanair, it’s Atlas Blue’s turn to announce its low fare flights from Spain to Morocco.

For a couple of years, you could fly budget to Morocco from almost anywhere in Europe except from Spain. People would travel for hours on a bus or train to reach Algeciras and hop on a ferry.

Well, those days are over. Atlas Blue has just become the fourth airline in succession to open low-cost routes between the two countries.

In case you’re lost by now, here’s the recap.

Atlas Blue
Barcelona - Marrakech from March 26
Madrid - Marrakech from March 26

Easyjet
Madrid - Casablanca from February 22
Madrid - Marrakech from February 22

Ryanair
Barcelona/Girona - Marrakech from March 27 

Spanair
Madrid - Casablanca from May 27

Copy that, guys?

Update: Ryanair has just cancelled its flights from Girona/Barcelona to Marrakech

• We’ll update the list asap

There’s plenty of rumors around about Morocco’s flag carrier - is Royal Air Maroc really coming to Atlanta?

We hear a lot of rumors about Royal Air Maroc. Some of them are too good not to share.

First, there’s the more-or-less confirmed news that the airline will introduce first class on flights from Europe to Morocco. No other airline offers that class of tickets on such “medium-haul” flights.

The carrier introduced its “Executive Class” business service in the summer of 2006, and according to L’Economiste (which we really have to say is the best-informed newspaper in Morocco), Royal Air Maroc will re-invent it once more to make it a “real” first class service.

Second piece of gossip is about the Moscow to Agadir route. The idea has been floating around for some time, and it would be a great way to open up the Russian market for Moroccan tourism.

The latest on this route seems to be that it could become a reality by spring 2008.

We keep hearing the same about a Casablanca to Atlanta route, or, alternatively, to Orlando. Atlanta is the largest hub airport in the world, while Orlando is a major base for a lot of budget carriers, like Southwest and JetBlue.

Indeed, the discussion at Royal Air Maroc is said to be whether to operate the new transatlantic routes with the flag carrier itself or with its own successful budget subsidiary, Atlas Blue.

That could be Atlas Atlantic, then.

• No rumors, just facts over at the Morocco FAQ