RYANAIR has announced plans to add extra flights to a popular holiday destination in 2024, including adding a new airport to its schedule.
Holidaymakers already have their eyes on where they might go next summer, with cheaper airfares often found when booking in advance.
One place they might consider is Morocco with Ryanair hoping to boost its summer traffic in and out of the country by a third next year, by flying as many as 9 million passengers.
The added flights reflects the “huge potential” of the budget airline’s sole African destination, a senior executive said on Wednesday.
The low-cost pioneer, Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers, will operate domestic flights in Morocco for the first time next year, connecting nine cities.
New UK routes will connect Agadir to Birmingham, Bournemouth and Edinburgh.
Marrakech will get new flights from Birmingham, Bristol and Leeds Bradford.
Meanwhile, Tangier Airport will become the Irish airline’s fourth base in Morocco, with two new aircraft added to the travel hub, and will have flights to and from Manchester.
Overall, Ryanair’s summer schedule will see 14 aircraft deployed across four Moroccan airports.
There will be 11 new domestic routes in operation in the country, including new routes to Beni Mellal and Errachidia.
Moroccan officials hope to attract 17.5 million tourists by 2026, up from 11 million last year. In 2019, Morocco had 13 million visitors.
“I just think there’s huge potential,” said Eddie Wilson, the head of Ryanair DAC.
He noted Morocco’s relative lack of seasonality due to the amount of its diaspora that regularly fly home and its growth as an off-season weekend destination for European tourists.
“The money they are investing in tourism and in industry down there… I just see it as a really, really big market for us,” he told Reuters.
Wilson added that the airline’s Moroccan schedule would not be impacted by any delays in the delivery of new aircraft.
Ryanair is concerned that up to 10 of 57 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft due to be delivered by next summer may be delayed.
Wilson said Ryanair are keeping Boeing’s “feet to the fire” and that the situation is not getting worse.
Flights to Morocco typically take around three-and-a-half hours and can be booked for around £70 return.
Temperatures in the country remain warm, even during the winter, with average highs in December of 20C.
Morocco isn’t the only place where Ryanair is adding flights next year.
The airline is expanding its services throughout Europe and has even added new bases in the UK.
It will also add another 24 international routes to eight European countries.
From April next year, passengers will be able to fly with Ryanair from Norwich airport, to Alicante, Faro, and Malta.
In Wales, new routes to Alicante and Tenerife will run from Cardiff airport, while services to Malaga will be increased.
Elsewhere, flights to Malaga, Faro and Dublin will take off from Cornwall as of this winter, while flights between Newquay and London Stansted start this week.
Meanwhile, Jet2 is launching new flights to three Italian destinations from eight UK airports.
And British Airways is returning to London Stansted for the first time since the pandemic.
