Aviation History
Aviation in Morocco developed under the French protectorate from the 1910s-1920s, with early airmail routes linking Moroccan cities to metropolitan France. National carrier Royal Air Maroc traces its roots to two carriers founded in the mid-1940s, Air Atlas and Air Maroc, which merged in 1953 and formally adopted the Royal Air Maroc name in 1957. The airline entered the jet age in 1960 with the Sud Aviation Caravelle and became the first African carrier to operate the Boeing 757 in 1986. Royal Air Maroc modernized its long-haul fleet with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner starting in 2014 and joined the Oneworld alliance in 2020, while announcing plans in 2023 to roughly double its fleet within a decade amid Morocco's growing tourism sector and its role co-hosting the 2030 FIFA World Cup.
French colonial authorities established some of Morocco's earliest airmail links, connecting Moroccan cities to metropolitan France in the years after World War I.
Compagnie Chérifienne de l'Air, known as Air Atlas, was established flying Junkers Ju 52 aircraft; it became one of two predecessor carriers to Royal Air Maroc.
Air Atlas merged with Compagnie Chérifienne de Transports Aériens (Air Maroc) in July 1953 to form the carrier that would become Royal Air Maroc.
The airline officially adopted the name Royal Air Maroc, with the Moroccan government holding a majority stake.
Royal Air Maroc introduced the Sud Aviation Caravelle, its first jet aircraft, deployed on routes including Rabat-Bamako.
Royal Air Maroc became the first Arab airline to fly to New York and also launched a weekly nonstop service to Rio de Janeiro.
Royal Air Maroc became the first African airline to operate the Boeing 757.
Royal Air Maroc took delivery of its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner, modernizing its long-haul fleet.
On April 1, 2020, Royal Air Maroc became the 14th member of the Oneworld alliance, the first carrier from North Africa to join.
Royal Air Maroc · Air Arabia Maroc · Royal Air Maroc Express · Air Atlas (historical)
General public/encyclopedic sources (Wikipedia, airline histories); the 2023 fleet-expansion plan and World Cup-related infrastructure plans are forward-looking and time-sensitive.
Aviation Firsts
Casablanca-Anfa Airport — Casablanca: Built in the 1920s by the French colonial government (no exact year found this session); fully closed and demolished, ceasing all operations in 2007. No competing claim was found and verified this session for Morocco's oldest *operating* airport — Mohammed V International (Casablanca, CMN) traces to a US-built WWII airfield (Berrechid Airfield, completed March 1943), but Wikipedia makes no 'oldest' claim for it, and other candidates (Tangier, Fes, Rabat-Sale) could not be checked before the search budget ran out. · Wikipedia ↗
Casablanca-Anfa is the oldest Moroccan airport found with a dated (1920s) origin, but it is defunct, and no confirmed oldest-*operating* Moroccan airport could be established this session — a genuine gap, not a resolved contest, pending a follow-up check of Tangier, Fes, and Rabat-Sale airports.
Royal Air Maroc (1953): Predecessor 1, Compagnie Cherifienne de l'Air ('Air Atlas'), registered 9 October 1946 (Junkers Ju 52s). Predecessor 2, Compagnie Cherifienne de Transports Aeriens ('Air Maroc'), founded 1947, began scheduled ops 1949. The two merged 28 June 1953 into Compagnie Nationale de Transports Aeriens, absorbing both predecessors' fleets and routes; renamed 'Royal Air Maroc' 28 June 1957. Sources differ on which year counts as 'founding' — 1946 (earliest predecessor), 1953 (the merger creating the direct corporate ancestor, used here as Wikipedia's own stated founding year), or 1957 (when the current name was adopted). Current Moroccan flag carrier, Oneworld member since 1 April 2020 — a genuine unbroken-lineage case via merger, not liquidation. · AT ↗ · Wikipedia ↗
Swissport (Switzerland), 2012: Swissport won international tenders (reported April 2012) for ground handling at Casablanca Mohammed V and Marrakech airports; Swissport itself dates its relationship with Morocco's airport operator ONDA to 2012 ('The two companies have worked together since 2012,' per an Air Cargo News piece on a contract renewal). No explicit 'first foreign ground handler in Morocco' statement was found, and an earlier foreign entrant could not be ruled out given the exhausted search budget, so confidence is tentative. Royal Air Maroc's own handler, Alyzia Aviation Services/RAM Handling, was checked and correctly excluded as domestic; Menzies Aviation, dnata, WFS and Çelebi were also checked and none mention Morocco. (best-documented candidate found — not source-confirmed as literally first.) · North Africa Post ↗