In her turn, Habiba Lakalech, Director General of the National Airports Office, highlighted the success story that the air sector is currently experiencing, which is expected to extend to the coming years. It is useful at the outset of her presentation that there are 100 projects related to different areas of intervention that are currently being implemented, after which she spoke about the five-year plan 2021/2025 to look into the future. And making the customer at the center of the 2025 plan, which relies on five strategic axes: readiness to adapt to the new situation, enhancing the level of cooperation with various actors in the organization’s environment, then innovation in services and infrastructure for sustainable growth, and encouraging operational and environmental excellence in accordance with the highest safety conditions. security and human capital development, and finally openness widely to the world and the definition of the Moroccan character of the National Airports Office.
She also stated that the ambition for drawing 2030 is to reach 37 million passengers, knowing that the capacity currently reaches 39 million passengers, by investing the great achievement of the national team in Qatar and its expected positive effects on tourism movement, as well as making airports living spaces that embody the identity of the region and play the role of a welcoming interface. travelers, and achieving the goal of moving Morocco to the first third of the world rankings by 2035.
Calculated steps to control the crisis
In this context, she revealed that Casablanca Airport obtained three marks of distinction in 2022, including the best airport in Africa, the airport available to the most dedicated users to work at the continental level, as well as the airport that has the easiest path for travelers on the continent, as well as being ranked among the top five most developed airports. In the world.
It did not fail to provide detailed data, starting with the great dynamism witnessed in the 2015/2019 period, when the number of travelers reached 25 million. However, the pandemic had a profound impact on the sector, leaving a decline of minus 71 percent in the number of travelers in 2020, and minus 60 percent in 2021, recording a collapse in the number of passengers. Transactions number and a cumulative deficit of 2.9 billion dirhams.
The office’s priority during the crisis was to preserve the health of travelers and users, adapt to health monitoring procedures, and download all applicable protocols. Thus, 16 Moroccan airports obtained health accreditation from the Airports Council International.
The office also tended to reduce costs, reduce the space used, postpone some projects, grant one billion dirhams to partners to maintain job positions and face the repercussions of the crisis, postpone bill payment dates and exemption from aircraft stopover fees.