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Why Royal Air Maroc quietly became our favourite long-haul
Aviation

Why Royal Air Maroc quietly became our favourite long-haul

Julian Okafor
Julian OkaforPublished February 8, 2026 · 8 min read

Royal Air Maroc (RAM) is the flag carrier of Morocco. Five years ago most industry people would have described it as 'functional but nothing special.' Today the fleet is newer, the service is sharper, the routes are more useful, and the pricing is the best of any one-world long-haul in its region. This did not happen by accident.

The fleet is doing the heavy lifting

RAM retired most of its aging 737-800s and put 787-9s on nearly every intercontinental leg. The cabin product is simple, clean, and consistent. The crews are warm in a genuinely Moroccan way that you cannot train into a European or Gulf carrier. The food is better than it has any right to be — someone in the catering team cares about bread.

RAM 787 at CMN. Casablanca is now one of the most useful hub connections between Africa, Europe and the Americas.
RAM 787 at CMN. Casablanca is now one of the most useful hub connections between Africa, Europe and the Americas.

The hub argument

Casablanca sits in a geographically perfect place for African connections. Paris is two hours. New York is seven. Accra is four. Dakar is three. For anyone building a multi-stop Africa itinerary, routing via CMN is often the cheapest and fastest option — and the arrivals experience at the refurbished terminal is calm in a way Charles de Gaulle will never be.

The airlines that quietly improve are the ones worth paying attention to. Loud rebrands rarely work. Fleet renewals do.

RAM is not perfect. Business class is not Qatar. The frequent flyer programme is sparse. Schedule reliability in winter still has the occasional bad day. But as a paid-cash long-haul option for routes through North and West Africa, there is currently nobody in their league for value.

What we book our own team on

When Fedalom staff travel, we are often on RAM metal whether we planned to be or not. That is not coincidence — our internal cheapest-route tool keeps surfacing their flights as the best option. At some point you stop arguing with the data.

Julian Okafor

Julian Okafor

Aviation correspondent. Former revenue analyst at a legacy carrier. Still irrationally loyal to the A350.