Review of Royal Air Maroc flight Nouakchott Casablanca in Economy

Airline Royal Air Maroc
Flight AT510
Class Economy
Seat 22D
Aircraft Boeing 737-800
Flight time 02:35
Take-off 07 Dec 18, 07:10
Arrival at 07 Dec 18, 10:45
AT   #54 out of 96 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 133 reviews
bldavid
By GOLD 1561
Published on 14th December 2018
I decided to visit Mauritania in December 2018. This is a country I wanted to go to see for a long time and it seemed that – after a period of ten years or so when it was considered too dangerous to go – Mauritania was again safe to visit.

Although not many airlines fly to Mauritania, finding the best route from my home airport Keflavík, Iceland to Nouakchott offered a great number of combinations. Only Air France flies from mainland Europe, and while it seems to be the obvious choice, the drawbacks are a red-eye return flight and an overpriced business class. Turkish also flies from Istanbul but it’s a long detour and the flight times are not very convenient. Royal Air Maroc flies daily from Casablanca with good connections for Europe, and the return flight is in the morning, not at night. Both economy and business class seem to be reasonably good, but the latter is quite expensive, although not as much as Air France. Other airlines flying to Nouakchott include Air Algérie and Tunisair but they fly only a few times a week using uncomfortable aircrafts and short red-eye return flights – not the best options for me. Mauritania Airlines flies from Casablanca – would have been interesting to try. Eventually I flew with Bintar Canarias from Las Palmas – this airline has good reviews, reasonable prices and the schedules suited me. My return flight was with Royal Air Maroc as I had to go anyway to Morocco for work right after my stay in Mauritania.

So my routing was:

Icelandair, business class from Keflavík to London-Gatwick
Easyjet from London-Gatwick to Las Palmas with a stay at the Clubroom Lounge
Binter Canarias from Las Palmas to Nouakchott
Royal Air Maroc from Nouakchott to Casablanca
TAP Portugal, business class from Marrakech to Lisbon
TAP Portugal, business class from Lisbon to London-Heathrow
Icelandair, business class from London-Heathrow to Keflavík

Google map shows that the airport is at more than one hour driving time from Nouakchott but the actual time is about 30 minutes - you can reach the airport from the main road leading to Nouadhibou.
The departure time for this flight was 7.10 from Nouakchott. The hotel insisted that it was enough for the transfer to leave at 5.00 and get to the airport at 5.30. There was however a queue of about 20 minutes to get inside the terminal building as there was a security check.

photo 01

The terminal is, as I already mentioned in my previous flight report, modern, large, clean, and underused. There are many shops and services – but almost all of them were closed both when I arrived and when I left.

As we were just after the G5 Sahel meeting, a lot of VIP’s that looked like ambassadors and ministers of foreign affairs were at the airport with their body guards and the local police, so sorry, no photos from inside the terminal.

There were only three flights this morning: one Mauritania Airlines flight to Dakar, Conakry, Freetown, another to Cotonou, Brazzaville and Bamako, and the Royal Air Maroc flight to Casablanca. There was a separate desk for business and economy. It took me 20 minutes to get to the desk where I received my boarding pass in no time. Passport control took another 20 minutes, so I was airside one hour after getting to the airport.

Boarding was by bridge where newspapers were offered in Arabic and in French. Note the 60 years Royal Air Maroc sign on the plane.

photo 02

Royal Air Maroc has proper business seats on its B737’s but they were not for me today. Business class would have been 400 € more expensive than economy for a two hours and 30 minutes one-way flight.

photo 03

The cabin was in a reasonably good condition. Business class was in a 2+2 and economy class is in a 3+3 configuration. Seats were leather (or faux-leather?) and had some recline. There were overhead screen but not individual ones. I couldn’t pre-book an extra legroom seat, so I booked 22D, a standard seat with standard legroom. At least there was no charge for this seat.

photo 04

The flight almost completely full with a lot of different passengers: Mauritanians travelling abroad, African and European business people, diplomats, Europeans working in Mauritania - was I maybe the only tourist?

Mood lighting

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The main French-speaking Moroccan newspaper called Le Matin immediately caught my attention: Royal Air Maroc has been admitted to OneWorld!

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Push-back was on time at 07.15 and we took off from runway 34 at 07.22.

The on-board magazine

photo 08

Airport upgrade was unfortunately not available this time

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There are no individual screens, only overhead ones, but Royal Air Maroc tries to be modern and offers a new type of service: on board wi-fi allows to access only one site from which the passengers can download 12 movies, 18 TV shows, play one of the two games, listen to 37 different music or read one of the four magazines (Jeune Afrique and Science et Vie in French, Forbes and History in English). The idea is good, but wi-fi was available only in the second half of the flight and I didn’t manage to use it eventually except for the magazines.

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The fleet of Royal Air Maroc



The airlines cleary targets two main types of clients: those who travel to/from Casablance, its hub in Morocco, and those who travel between Europe and Africa. RAM flies to 17 airports in Morocco, 30 in Africa, 37 in Europe, 4 in the Middle East and 4 in the US and Canada

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A proper hot breakfast was offered on this flight. The fruit salad was good. The omelette was industrial but OK. The pain au chocolat and the croissant were not good. Why the quality was not very high, it is always appreciable to have a hot meal on a morning flight.

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Some time later drinks were offered: orange juice, apple juice or water.

The rest of the flight was uneventful. We had a hard landing in the fog at 10.45, exactly on time.

We deplaned by bridge

photo 24

Casablanca airport is really a nice one, modern, efficiant. Most passengers were on a connecting flight. There was only a short wait for passport control. Don't forget to fill out the form before you go to the officers.

The airport has a train stations. The same trains run hourly (departing currently at .55) to Casablanca's two main stations, Casa Voyageurs and Casa Port. Tickets cost 44 dirhams (4 €). Check which one of the two stations are closer to your accommodation if you stay in Casablanca.

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The airport train looked old but was clean inside and run on time.

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It took 30 minutes to get from the airport to Casa Voyageurs. This station has both an oldd and a modern part, both of them very nice.

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If you need to go from Casablanca Airport to Marrakech, note that there are no direct trains. You need first to go the station called Oasis and change train there, but it's better to go to Casa Voyageurs as it has more facilities.

Thank you for reading my flight report.
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Verdict

Royal Air Maroc

6.4/10
Cabin7.0
Cabin crew6.0
Entertainment/wifi5.0
Meal/catering7.5

Nouakchott - NKC

5.5/10
Efficiency5.0
Access5.0
Services3.0
Cleanliness9.0

Casablanca - CMN

8.8/10
Efficiency10.0
Access9.0
Services8.0
Cleanliness8.0

Conclusion

Royal Air Maroc offers a quality economy class product with leather seats, proper meals and inflight entertainment, and this flight was as good as a crowded economy class can get on short-haul.

Related

7 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 480190 by
    Guillbcn 68 Comments
    Thanks for the interesting FR!
    RAM is offering a nice service between Europe and Sub-saharian using Casablanca as the main hub. I've used the airport twice on my flights to Banjul (2012) and Dakar (2016) and is quite old. Even that the airline is providing a good service and the "new" interiors are much more confortable than they used to be a few yars ago.
  • Comment 480234 by
    Pilpintu TEAM 997 Comments
    I hope one day I will have dinner at Rick's Café Americain in Casablanca. How romantic! I'm a bit of a fan of the movie, you know? hahha Your tips on how to get from CMN to the city are a good way to start!

    I wonder why RAM has to get its "mantequilla" from Spain.

    Not the most extraordinary IFE system, but it's definitely better than nothing! I never use any kind of IFE at all, so I wouldn't care.

    Thanks again for yet another enjoyable report!
  • Comment 480239 by
    Enivit 45 Comments
    Thank you for this interesting report. Royal Air Maroc is known to provide good connections and less waiting time for flights between Europe and Africa. I think the catering is not from Casablanca because the plane arrives at Nouakchott at 00:30 and departs at 07:10, this can be an explanation of why the food was not good. also if you don't mind I want to correct the number of cities: 16 in Morocco and 37 in Europe + Vienna will be open in 2019 = 38 in Europe + 7 in Asia (DOH, BEY, AMM, IST, JED, RUH, MED) + 2 in South America (GIG, GRU).
    • Comment 480263 by
      bldavid GOLD AUTHOR 308 Comments
      Thank you for your comment. Yes, RAM offers very good connecting times between Europe and Africa and their on-board service is very good for economy - and I guess their business class service is also good. Thank you for the corrections as well!
  • Comment 484327 by
    02022001 GOLD 4375 Comments
    RAM in Oneworld, interesting !
    Thanks to share ;)

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