The strange route of the first Royal Air Maroc flight from Casablanca to Tel Aviv

From AFP:

Royal Air Maroc took off from Morocco’s economic capital Casablanca bound for Tel Aviv on Sunday, in the carrier’s first direct flight to the Jewish state since the two countries normalized ties in 2020.

Aviation sources and local media sources said a Moroccan business delegation was on the inaugural flight, delayed by three months because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Casablanca/Tel Aviv for 400 euros ($440). Who would have believed it?” tweeted David Govrin, head of Israel’s liaison office in the Arab state.

The Moroccan carrier RAM is to fly four times a week between Casablanca and Tel Aviv, while Israeli airlines launched flights to Morocco’s Marrakesh last July, although they were suspended in late November because of coronavirus travel curbs.

Here is the route that the flight took:

Flights between Morocco and Israel cannot go in a straight line because Algeria, Libya and probably Tunisia would not allow them to fly over their airspace. So the flight must pass over parts of Spain, Italy and Crete.

But that isn't the only reason for the flight path.

Algeria doesn't only block overflights from and to Israel - it bans any air traffic to and from Morocco! The ban took effect last September over their own cold war.

Flights from Casablanca to Cairo take a very similar route, avoiding Algerian airspace:

Interestingly, there do not appear to be any direct flights from Morocco to Jordan.

Which means that in one sense, Israel's ties to Arab Morocco are closer than those of Jordan.

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