While Morocco has made significant progress in its negotiations with the region’s former colonial power, Spain, with a view to resuming management of the Sahara airspace, the European Commissioner for Transport and Tourism, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, declared that “the Euro-Mediterranean air agreement between the European Union and Morocco does not apply to air flights from the territory of a Member State of the European Union to the Sahara”. These statements follow a written question on the application of the Euro-Mediterranean air agreement between the European Union (EU) and Morocco in the Sahara territories, which a European MP belonging to the left addressed to him, after the announcement of the Irish low cost Ryanair to launch connections from EU countries to the city of Dakhla, in particular a direct flight between Madrid and this Moroccan city, reports The Independent.
European airlines had been informed that the Euro-Mediterranean air agreement between the EU and Morocco does not apply to air flights from the territory of a Member State of the European Union to the Sahara on December 3, 2024 during a meeting of the EU External Air Policy Advisory Forum. According to the Commissioner, this is based on the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union. To support his point, Tzitzikostas explicitly cited a passage from a judgment of the European Court of Justice which, in 2021, declared “null and void” the fishing and agricultural agreements signed between the EU and the Morocco, which were approved last October.
To read: France and Europe do not agree on the Sahara
During a meeting held on November 13 in the presence of Fatim-Zahra Ammor, Minister of Tourism, Crafts and the Social and Solidarity Economy, as well as Eddie Wilson, Managing Director of Ryanair, the Office Moroccan National Tourism Authority (ONMT) and Ryanair had signed an agreement under which the Irish low cost airline will connect Dakhla airport to two Spanish destinations, Madrid and Lanzarote. This agreement covers the next four tourist seasons and provides for the eventual programming of four new international routes to Dakhla. The company should launch two new routes this January connecting Dakhla airport to Madrid in Spain and Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, with two frequencies per week.
-The agreement also provides for the launch of new air routes connecting the main European cities to Dakhla airport, thus facilitating access for European tourists to this booming destination and contributing to its development.
Morocco
