Thursday, July 21, 2016

Extraordinary Security at Mohammed V Airport Upsets Travellers

Both local travellers and tourists are united in condemning the security measure that has caused visitors arriving to welcome friends, family or tourists, being forced to wait outside the terminal building in the extreme summer heat

The situation has been described by The Economist as "a mess" and describes the situation as "harsh". Tourist operators are more blunt, saying that treating people like sheep is embarrassing and does not give arriving visitors a feeling of being welcomed by the usual Moroccan hospitality. Similar conditions are replicated at other airports such as Fez.

The reason for this herding outside of the public is not a response to the summer influx, but rather a rather ham-fisted security measure. As The Economist points out... "It remains an open question as to its effectiveness: the crowds (and soliciting clients by taxi drivers) is now avoided inside but eventually ends up at ... outside! Which slows the flow of travellers and gives rise to messy scenes".

On the other hand the increased security inside the terminal appears to be working well.

Meanwhile, the number of passengers at Mohammed V airport in Casablanca has grown by 4.47% in May compared to the same period last year. The figures were released by ONDA, the national airport office.

The figures show that 707,790 travellers used the airport in May compared to 677,514 the same period a year earlier.

Passengers on board flights to or from Europe decreased by 1.56%, whereas travellers to or from Latin America and Asia registered a considerable rebound of 47.56% and 16.35% respectively. The number of domestic passengers rose by 9.56%.

In terms of the number of travellers by country, France tops the list with 150.310 passengers, followed by Italy (51, 327), Spain (36,502) and Turkey (26,497).

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1 comment:

Unknown said...

Sorry to hear this airport is getting worse.. when I travelled through there a few years ago I found it one of the most confusing, ill-signed and unhelpful airports I've ever been through.