British Airways adds flights to Cape Town; introduces codeshare with Royal Air Maroc

February 17, 2020: From January 10, 2021, British Airways will add two extra flights a week between Gatwick Airport in London and Cape Town International Airport in South Africa. The new services will mean that customers can choose from 19 flights a week to Cape Town from London, with the outbound and return flights overnight to maximise time in South Africa, alongside 14 to Johannesburg, again overnight both ways, and three to Durban.

Even British Airways and Royal Air Maroc have announced a new codeshare agreement which will open up new routes across Morocco including Casablanca and Agadir. It will also give customers more flight flexibility between London Heathrow and Marrakesh.

British Airways’ first African codeshare will give its customers more choice of services between Heathrow and Marrakesh. As well as daily access to Royal Air Maroc’s hub in Casablanca, this is not currently served directly by British Airways.

Chris Fordyce, British Airways’ head of alliances said, “We are delighted to be partnering with Morocco’s flagship airline, Royal Air Maroc to create our first African codeshare agreement. Not only will this codeshare agreement give our customers the choice of more flights to Africa’s biggest tourist destination, Morocco, but it will also connect our extensive global network to new destinations in Africa.”

Royal Air Maroc will be joining oneworld alliance on April 1, 2020.

Casablanca also serves as the perfect hub for connections onto other Royal Air Maroc destinations, including Abidjan in the Ivory Coast, Freetown in Sierra Leone and Agadir in Morocco.

Hamid Addou, Royal Air Maroc’s CEO added, "This new codeshare with British Airways confirms Royal Air Maroc's major role as a key player connecting Africa to the rest of the world. We are very pleased with this cooperation which will foster our traffic development and ease the access to both our companies' networks on both ends. Thanks to this code-sharing agreement, Royal Air Maroc offers its passengers access to additional destinations across Great Britain and a better customer journey, through optimized connections and end-to-end check-in operations, with international assistance at airports served by the two companies.”