eastafspot wrote:peterinlisbon wrote:
It's not about being eco-friendly, it's about being practical. There is no sense in providing flights from small towns with extremely low demand when there is a much bigger airport just a couple of hours away.
RAM could provide feed from Rabat, Kenitra, Beni Mellal and Marrakech to Casablanca airport with a bus service. They could either do this themselves and that would allow them to sell tickets from these cities or they could just encourage a company such as CTM to stop at the airport on some of its existing services.
Particularly in the case of Marrakech, they are really missing out - Marrakech is just 2 hours away from Casablanca airport and it is Morocco's number 1 tourist destination. If they provided a shuttle bus to Marrakech train station, that would vastly increase the appeal of Casablanca airport and RAM to tourists visiting Morocco.
Interesting facts peterinlisbon as, KL does the same on the Ottawa-Montreal or Toronto route in Canada with a bus service connecting to the flight to AMS..
However, Canada not being Morocco, are you sure about the 2h drive? I mean, from town to town or from town to the airport (which I really doubt, considering how recklessly fellow North African citizens are driving and how long you can spend time arguing for a minor incident with officials...). The roads are OK but what about - speaking in general - other general issues...?
Thus at least, this kind of service provides a seamless experience from start to finish. What about essential air parcel from these remote areas?davidjohnson6 wrote:Marrakech airport was expanded significantly a few years ago and has flights from all over Europe. Very few people who are travelling to/from Marrakech would travel by land and use Casablanca airport - probably something just for a.netters...Blerg wrote:According to Wikipedia, Ryanair will be discontinuing its Budapest-Marrakesh flights from 04.11.2019.
That's a grim news!
Will CMN get another destination from FR to replace BUD or central Europe?
That's a shame to hear they stopped the Budapest flight. Regarding roads in Morocco, the highways are very good and perhaps better than a lot of the roads in the USA/Canada. Morocco has a network of brand new 3 lane motorways with very light traffic, so you can get around very quickly. Renting a car can be a good idea if you want to travel around the country and visit a lot of different places - you can go to the mountains, the smaller cities, the desert and the beaches etc. As far as driving is concerned, you have to be careful to always obey the speed limits and signs as they have a lot of police with radars around. It's actually quite relaxing to drive in Morocco as long as you stay out of the cities.
In large Moroccan cities, though, I'd recommend NOT having a car as the traffic is crazy - motorbikes, taxis, pedestrians and extremely narrow roads. I'd say the same about Tunisia - a car is really useful to have once you get outside of Tunis.
I did see that Moroccan railways has sped up its services between Casablanca and Marrakech, so it is now possible to get from Casablanca Airport to Marrakech in 3h30m (via Oasis station). The new TGV also makes it quite quick to the north of Morocco and prices are low, so I imagine these factors make Casablanca airport more of an option for people living in these places. I think also the fact that domestic flights are cheaper now may also help.
Although Marrakech is the most famous place for tourism, Casablanca is still the biggest airport in Morocco and it is more important for outbound traffic. Plus, it has most of the long-haul flights to places like Dubai, Qatar, New York etc.
