Budget carrier Air Arabia will open a hub in Morocco in the later half of this year in order to connect to European destinations. This will be its third hub. Its base is in Sharjah and this year launched its second hub in Kathmandu, Nepal, in a joint venture with Yeti Airlines.
According to Adel Ali, CEO of Air Arabia, "We do not have an exact date yet but we are looking at starting operations from our Morocco hub sometime in the fourth quarter of this year. The whole objective is to connect to Europe, North Africa and more Middle East destinations via Morocco."
For its hub in Rabat, Air Arabia has entered into a joint venture with Morocco's leading private carrier, Regional Air Lines and Bahrain-based investment bank, Ithmaar Bank.
Air Arabia originally intended to launch the Morocco hub before the Kathmandu hub, but as Morocco is going to be much larger hub, it took time. "Establishing a hub in Kathmandu, on the other hand, was a much quicker process," Ali said.
"Considering Morocco expects to welcome an estimated 10 million tourists a year by 2010, this is a good move. There is also a large Moroccan diaspora, in Europe, who will benefit," said Mohamed Hassan Ben Salah, Chairman of Morocco's Regional Air Lines.
Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news
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