Record 18.2 mln Passengers Passed through Morocco’s Airports in 2016

The number of passengers at Moroccan airports grew 3.58% in 2016 compared to 2015 to reach a record 18.2 million, said the national airport office (ONDA.)

This increase is ascribed to the momentum witnessed in international air traffic, which rose by 3% accounting for 16.31 million passengers in 2016, said the ONDA in its latest statistics.

Apart from flights to and from Europe which remained almost unchanged at a rate of 0.68%, other destinations showed a significant increase as is the case with South America (+54.93%), Africa (+11.62%), the Middle East and Asia (+10.68%), ONDA said.

Passenger traffic rose considerably in the airport of Rabat-Salé, which registered 873,169 travelers that is a 23.6% growth compared to a year earlier. Dakhla airport posted a passenger growth rate of 20.96%, that is 154.451 travelers, while 182,400 passengers passed through the airport of Laayoune.

The airport of Casablanca saw the rate of passenger traffic grow by 5%, that is 8.61 million passengers compared to 8.17 million the previous year.

Morocco’s main tourist hubs, Marrakech and Agadir saw the passenger traffic rates in their airports grow by 18.5% and 7.02% respectively.

A slight increase was also registered in terms of plane movement (1.16%), cargo (6.52%) and overflight traffic (11.1%), said the ONDA.