Royal Air Maroc is planning to launch flights to a new destination in the United States, which will also have major implications for that airport, in terms of achieving a fairly rare milestone.
Royal Air Maroc will fly Boeing 787s to Los Angeles
Royal Air Maroc has just requested permission with the Department of Transportation (DOT) to launch flights between Casablanca (CMN) and Los Angeles (LAX). The oneworld airline intends to launch regularly scheduled flights as of June 2026, and claims it will start marketing and selling the flights as soon as it receives regulatory approval. The airline shouldn’t have any issues securing that permission.
The schedule for the 5,990-mile flight hasn’t yet been published, but you can expect that it’ll take somewhere around 11-12 hours in each direction. The airline will use a Dreamliner for the flight, as it has both the Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 in its fleet.
Royal Air Maroc’s destinations in the United States currently include Miami (MIA), New York (JFK), and Washington (IAD). One certainly wonders what this service will come at the expense of, given Royal Air Maroc’s small long haul fleet. The airline has just five 787-8s and six 787-9s.
There has been a lot of talk about the airline ordering more aircraft, but presumably those wouldn’t be delivered in time for this route to launch. So I think it’s safe to say that some other route will need to be cut or reduced, and that this service will be less than daily, at least initially.
I imagine the timing of this route starting is no coincidence, and is intended to overlap with the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
LAX will once again be part of the six continent club!
There aren’t many airports in the world with nonstop, regularly scheduled passenger service to all six continents, given the obvious geographical challenge of that. Assuming this route launches, LAX will finally once again join that club, as this will once again connect the airport to Africa.
For what it’s worth, EgyptAir also plans to launch LAX flights next year, so the airport could go from zero to two Africa routes over a very short period.
What’s my take on Royal Air Maroc’s upside with launching this route? To Royal Air Maroc’s credit, the airline has a very low cost structure, given that labor costs in Morocco are just a little bit lower than we have at US airlines. 😉
Los Angeles to Morocco isn’t necessarily a huge market, but when you add up all the potential one-stop Africa city pairs, it shouldn’t be too tough to make this service work. Given Morocco’s geography, connecting via Casablanca could even be somewhat efficient for some destinations in Europe.
So anyway, this isn’t some huge market, but when you combine the carrier’s low cost structure with the number of one-stop destinations, I’m sure this route would do fine. Then again, is there really much incremental revenue for the extra 2,000 miles of flying compared to service from the East Coast?
Bottom line
Royal Air Maroc has requested permission to launch regularly scheduled flights between Casablanca and Los Angeles as of June 2026, using Boeing 787s. We’ve known the airline has been wanting to add this service, so it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. The big question is just where the airline will get the planes needed, given how small the wide body fleet is.
What do you make of Royal Air Maroc launching LAX flights?
