The Royal Air Maroc is an airline company founded in July 1953. It is known as RAM, and it is a Moroccan National Carrier, and it is the largest airline in the country as well. The Moroccan Government owns this airline company and has its headquarters at the Casablanca-Anfa Airport. This airline company joined the Oneworld Alliance in 2020.

It has its base at the Mohammed V International Airport. The carrier company operates a domestic network in Morocco, and it has scheduled international flights to Africa, Europe, North and South America and Asia. The occasional charter flights also include the Hajj Service.

History

The focus cities of this airline are Marrakesh and Tangier, and Safar Flyer comes under the frequent flyer program. The subsidiaries of the airline company are RAM Cargo and RAM Express.

Royal Air Maroc was the airline formed in July 1953, and the fleet of the newly formed airline includes six Bretagnes, Four Commandos, five DC-3s and two Languedoc. These aircraft also worked on routes previously served by the predecessor companies and also added the cities of Geneva, Paris and Frankfurt.

Early years

Royal Air Maroc was adopted on 28 June 1957, with the Government of Morocco having a 67.73% stake. The Hajj flights commenced in 1957. The fleet of this carrier comprised 16 aircraft by April 1958, including four DC-4s, three DC-3s and seven Bretagnes and two C-46s. The airline ordered two Caravelles in May 1958. In July, several long-haul routes were launched using the four Lockheed L-749 Constellations leased from Air France. The coastal Oran-Oujda run was suspended in May, and it reopened a short while after that.

The airline company started flying to Gibraltar in 1958, and the arrival of the constellations also enabled this airline to withdraw the DC-4s from the service. A single Caravelle was also a part of the fleet of four L-749 Constellations, 3 DC-3s, 4 DC 4s by April 1950. This made Caravelle the first jet aircraft operated by the company. They also started serving the Rabat-Bamako route in July 1961. There were three Caravelles in the fleet by 1964, and the fourth was ordered the same year.

In April 1965, this company has around 758 employees and a chairmanship was held by Mohammed Al Fassi. The route network also included services within North Africa and linked to North Africa with Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Switzerland. The shareholding at that time was split between the Government of Morocco-64%, Air France- at 21% and Aviacion y Comercio-5%, Transatlantique-7.6% and others at 2.4%.

1970s

The carrier placed their first order with Boeing in 1969, and the Royal Air Maroc took delivery of first Boeing aircraft, a Boeing 727-200, in 1970. Royal Air Inter's subsidiary airline was formed early in 1970 for domestic routes using the Fokker F-27 Friendship equipment. It started operations on 2 April 1970, and by May 1971, it was serving Agadir, Casablanca, Fez, Oujda, Rabat, Tangier, Marrakesh, Tetouan and Al Hoceima.

By March 1975, the Boeing 707 was a part of the 11-strong fleet along with four Boeing 727-200s.

In 1975, it became the first-ever Arab airline to serve many destinations, and during the same year, the company also acquired three Boeing 737-200s to replace the Caravelles. In 1975, a weekly non-stop service to Rio De Janeiro was started.

Corporate affairs

As of 2018, this airline was owned by the Moroccan Government. 53.94% of the shares are owned directly by the state, and an additional 44.10% are held via the Hassan II Fund for the social and economic development. The remaining 2% of the shares are owned by the private investor, including Iberia and Air France.

The Government has also considered the privatization of the company for about 20 years. As of the year 2012, this airline company has the following subsidiaries-