Ahead of Royal Air Maroc joining oneworld on the 1st April, the airline has signed a codeshare agreement with British Airways.
Royal Air Maroc and British Airways staff walking through Heathrow – Image, British Airways
The new codeshare agreement goes into effect on the 20th February – well ahead of the airline formally being part of oneworld.
This will British Airways’ first African codeshare. As a result, this agreement will give its customers more choice of services between Heathrow and Marrakesh, as well as daily access to Royal Air Maroc’s hub in Casablanca, which is not currently served directly by British Airways.
Casablanca also serves as the hub for connections onto other Royal Air Maroc destinations, including Abidjan in the Ivory Coast, Freetown in Sierra Leone and Agadir in Morocco.
The Frequent Flyer Angle
For passengers, this will be a welcome boost forward, as Both Royal Air Maroc and British Airways’ customers will be able to earn loyalty points when flying on either carrier.
British Airways’ customers will be eligible for access to Royal Air Maroc’s airport lounges when flying in premium cabins of Royal Air Maroc’s, bearing British Airways code and the same will apply to Royal Air Maroc’s customers flying in a premium cabin of British Airways codeshare flights at British Airways airport lounges.
In quotes
Chris Fordyce, British Airways’ Head of Alliances, said:
“We are delighted to be partnering with Morocco’s flagship airline, Royal Air Maroc to create our first African codeshare agreement.
“Not only will this codeshare agreement give our customers the choice of more flights to Africa’s biggest tourist destination, Morocco, it will connect our extensive global network to new destinations in Africa.”
Hamid Addou, Royal Air Maroc’s CEO adds:
“This new Code-share with a prestigious company, British Airways, confirms Royal Air Maroc’s major role as a key player connecting Africa to the rest of the world. We are very pleased with this cooperation which will foster our traffic development and ease the access to both our companies’ networks on both ends. Thanks to this code-sharing agreement, Royal Air Maroc offers its passengers access to additional destinations across Great Britain and a better customer journey, through optimized connections and end-to-end check-in operations, with international assistance at airports served by the two companies.”
Readying for oneworld
As one of the closer oneworld neighbours (the other being S7 and Finnair), establishing codeshares will be useful for passengers, as well as the airlines as they get used to working closer together
Currently, Royal Air Maroc operates from Heathrow Terminal 4, operating to Casablanca and Rabat, whilst British Airways operates to Marrakesh from Terminal 5 on a seasonable basis. Over at Gatwick, Royal Air Maroc operates to Casablanca, whilst British Airways operates to Marrakesh.
For passengers, breezing through terminals and making connections will be important. Whilst putting a code on a flight doesn’t do much – it does open up new sales channels – for which both airlines will be happy with.
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This is not BA’s first African code-share. They partner with Comair in South Africa. Comair planes are even painted in the BA livery.
Comair is slightly different in this case – it’s a franchise holder as opposed to a code-share.
As such it markets and sells BA coded flights as British Airways – not as Comair itself.
It’s a technical distinction – but important, as Comair pays BA for the franchise to operate in that region with its colours, livery, uniforms and service standards.
Royal Air Maroc on the other hand is a more traditional code-share, where airline codes are applied on each others flights, with RAM staff on RAM aircraft, just with a BA code on the ticket to collect miles, avios and selling channels.