São Paulo – Royal Air Maroc will only start flying to São Paulo on December 9th this year. Still, the company’s CEO in Brazil, Mehdi El Yaalaoui, has told ANBA that the airline’s business plan already includes daily flights to the country. Royal Air Maroc’s target is to close 2014 with the three flights per week originally planned, raise the frequency to five flights per week by 2015, and then have flights on a daily basis as of 2016, said Yaalaoui at the company’s launch party, held last Friday (20th) evening in São Paulo.
"We are making an investment and we do not expect to make money in our first year. That is near-impossible to attain at the start of an operation. In the second year we will increase our presence, with five weekly flights, and by our third year we should be flying daily,” he said.
Royal Air Maroc operated flights in Brazil up until 1992, more precisely to Rio de Janeiro. Now, the airline wagers that its operations out of São Paulo will be more gainful. "We have flown a flight to Rio de Janeiro in the past and then we stopped for a few reasons. The company did not have the size it does now, and we had no hub, like the one we have now in Casablanca. However, global traffic flow in Brazil is growing, and it is nothing like it was 20 years ago. São Paulo is a very strong market, a much more interesting one than Rio de Janeiro," he said.
Yaalaoui believes that not even the presence of major Arab airlines will pose a challenge to his Brazilian operations. Emirates Airline, from Dubai, Qatar Airways, from Doha, and Etihad Airways, based in Abu Dhabi, are active in a different region, he says.
"The other Arab airlines are not our direct competitors. At times they even get to be our partners, because we do not fly to the same region. We are in the middle of the way to the Middle East, and our focus is on taking Brazilian tourists to Morocco, then to Europe and to Africa. European airlines are our true competitors," he said. According to the CEO, the company has decided to relaunch its operations in Brazil because its surveys and international air traffic assessments have always shown Brazil as a potentially successful market for Royal Air Maroc, due to its size and the potential to be tapped into in trips to Africa and Europe.
Yaalaoui said the return of a direct flight connecting Brazil and Morocco can help boost trade between the countries. "At this time, Brazil is Morocco’s fifth leading trade partner, and this flight may enhance this cooperation. A direct flight always makes commercial ties easier,” he said. He noted, however, that the company is betting on the potential for an increase in Brazilian tourist influx to Morocco and vice versa. “When we announced the flight to Brazil, Moroccans were enthused not only about the possibility of attending the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, but also because they regard Brazil as a travel destination," said the executive. Yaalaoui estimates that for as long as the airline operates three flights a week to Brazil, it should carry 22,000 passengers a year.
The Royal Air Maroc flights will leave from Casablanca headed for São Paulo on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The flights to Casablanca will take place on Tuesdays, Wednesday s and Fridays. In its first year, the company will fly a Boeing 767-300, but Yaalaoui said the route should see a new, more modern Boeing 787 in 2015. Presently, the airline flies to Algeria, Tunisia, Italy, Portugal, France, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, United States , Canada, Russia, Senegal, Switzerland, and Saudi Arabia.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
