Royal Air Maroc signed a partnership agreement last Wednesday at the national company's headquarters in Casablanca with the Gibraltar Department of Transport. Under the terms of this agreement, which will be signed in the presence of the Minister for Tourism, Economic Affairs, Public Transport and Ports of Gibraltar, Hon Neil Costa, the national carrier will launch a new air route connecting Tangier to Gibraltar.

This new service will be operational from March 2015 with two frequencies per week (Thursday and Sunday). It will allow the population of Gibraltar to travel easily by air to the city of the Strait and Moroccans to travel easily to Gibraltar.

The flights will be operated by latest-generation ATR72-600 aircraft, which offer a capacity of 72 seats in both economy and business classes. The route will be one of the shortest intercontinental air links, connecting Europe and Africa in less than 30 minutes of flight time.

"Gibraltar has always had strong ties with Morocco for decades and this new route will further strengthen these relations," the Minister stressed, before adding that these flights "will allow Moroccan citizens holding a Schengen visa to visit the city for a maximum of 21 days, to discover Gibraltar as a unique destination for shopping and leisure".

Thanks to this route, Moroccans will also be able to travel to Gibraltar from Casablanca airport with a stopover in Tangier. Residents of Gibraltar will also have the possibility to benefit from more than a hundred destinations offered by the Royal Air Maroc network in Morocco and internationally through its Casablanca hub.