Ryanair (FR, Dublin International) has scheduled Marrakech and a new service to Agadir on its summer 2022 timetable from Dublin International, contradicting a report by Maghreb Intelligence that the Irish budget carrier intends to withdraw from Morocco indefinitely from May.
The online news magazine cited unnamed sources saying Ryanair was fed-up with successive and “unjustified” closures of Moroccan airspace as a result of COVID-19 which were hampering its flight operations to the North African country.
Ryanair was not immediately available for comment.
However, its summer 2022 flight schedule from Dublin announced on January 20 includes Marrakech, as well as a new route to Agadir. The two Moroccan routes are amongst 120 destinations and more than 900 weekly flights operated by Ryanair this summer from Dublin.
The Irish carrier in mid-December suspended its flights to Morocco until February 1, following the Moroccan authorities' decision to close its skies to all international flights until the end of January to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant.
In November, Ryanair had announced it would open a new base in Agadir and station two aircraft there, signifying its “commitment to Morocco” and “its ability to rebuild the Moroccan tourism industry”. It willd operate 30, routes, including 20 new ones, from Agadir to Europe.
Earlier, Ryanair had accused the Portuguese Ministry of Infrastructure and the country's civil aviation authority (Autoridade Nacional da Aviação Civil – ANAC) of blocking it from opening three new routes from Lisbon to Morocco, which had resulted in the cancellation of several flights from October 31, 2021.
