From October 26, Dakhla will be served by a weekly flight connecting it to Orly airport. With a capacity of 189 seats, the Boeing 737 of Transavia, Air France’s low-cost airline, will connect the city to the rest of the world via the Paris airport. If Dakhla already had an air connection with the Canary Islands, this is the first time that a city in the southern provinces will be directly connected to the old continent.
Apart from the development of French arrivals, this new route will also benefit European tourists and emerging source markets such as China or Brazil whose nationals take long-haul flights as part of their multi-destination trips. Passengers who want to visit the city of Dakhla will have to pay 69 euros for a one-way ticket.
The inaugural flight lasting 4 and a half hours which will depart from the Paris airport will be an opportunity to introduce foreign journalists and travel agents to the tourist potential of a landlocked city whose airport only serves that of Las Palmas and Casablanca. In the event of growth in passenger flow, Transavia plans to increase the frequency of its flights from 2018.
Questioned by Médias24 about the company’s ambitions in Dakhla, which has a low hotel accommodation capacity, Abderrafie Zouiten, CEO of the ONMT, was optimistic, declaring that the 1,000 beds in the city were a good start and that reception structures were being created.
Remember that the tourist locomotives of Morocco are Marrakech with a bed capacity of 70,000 beds and Agadir with 30,000 beds.
With this signature, Morocco, the 2nd country most served by Transavia, confirms its position as the 1st non-European destination for France with an expected growth of 5% in arrivals in 2017.
The company plans to increase its seat offering by 33% to reach a total 873,000 seats in 2018 spread across several regions. To intensify its growth, it will launch new routes and develop existing lines to Casablanca, Marrakech, Tangier and Agadir
Apart from the direct Orly-Dakhla flight in winter 17/18, Transavia has announced the creation of an Orly-Rabat flight for summer 2018 and is considering a seasonal Paris-Errachidia and Paris-El Hoceima line.
The strengthening of existing lines will involve the addition of a third daily frequency on the Paris-Marrakech line.
Other lines will also be added such as one more weekly frequency for Lyon-Marrakech, Lyon-Agadir, Orly-Tanger and 3 more weekly frequencies for Orly-Agadir.
According to Nathalie Stubler, CEO of Transavia France, « the signing of this partnership with the ONMT is a key point for the commercial development of Transavia France, which will allow travelers to benefit from a greater choice in terms of flights and an expanded range of destinations. »
The company announced other new features in winter 2017/2018, which concern the bases in Paris, Nantes and Lyon. It will connect Paris to Casablanca (1st extension over winter), Nantes to Agadir (this connection will also be extended to summer 2018), Lyon to Oujda, while the Paris-Tangier line, initially set up for the summer season, will be extended.
source: medias24
