Royal Air Maroc: When Delays and Disregard for Passengers Become the Norm
By our special correspondent
There are delays, lost luggage, and endless layovers. And then there's the nonchalance, the feeling that the passenger who paid for their airline ticket is just a variable to be adjusted. A Tunisian delegation, in Dakar for an economic mission, experienced this bitter reality firsthand on Royal Air Maroc (RAM) flights.
The ordeal began on the outbound journey. The departure was delayed by two hours without a convincing explanation. Upon arrival, the luggage containing all the educational materials for the seminar was nowhere to be found. "They told us it would be sent on the 6 pm flight, then the 1 am flight," the passenger testified. To no avail: she woke up at 2 am, made repeated calls to the airport, but there was no luggage and, more importantly, no one to provide a written explanation. Why bother asking?
On the return journey, the scenario repeated itself. The Dakar-Casablanca flight, announced for 2:25 am, finally took off at 3:05 am. On board, the flight attendants assured passengers that the connecting flight to Tunis, scheduled for 7:50 am, would wait for them. The plane landed at 7 am sharp; the passenger sprinted to the gate and arrived at 7:25 am. Too late: her name had already been "removed" from the list, while other passengers from the same flight, who arrived after her, boarded calmly.
Refusal to call a flight manager, instructions to go to the "transit office" and clear passport control and security again: the passenger hit a brick wall. "It feels like a disguised overbooking," she whispered. "They remove certain passengers to make room for privileged ones."
In European law, as in Morocco, overbooking is legal as long as the passenger is indemnified and re-routed as soon as possible. However, it must be acknowledged. Here, there was no written explanation, no compensation offered, and no hotel accommodation provided. Only radio silence, which bordered on contempt.
When Reputation Takes a Hit Royal Air Maroc aims to become a regional hub. But a hub is judged on punctuality, reliability, and professional ethics, i.e., respect for all passengers. Without a reactive customer service, delays turn into a reputational abyss. Jihene's luggage finally arrived... after her seminar ended. "I was told to file a complaint online, but I wasn't given a receipt or a deadline," she lamented.
Beyond the individual case, the question of transparency arises. The company erodes the passenger's trust, a capital that takes a lifetime to build; a missed connection is enough to ruin it.
As we publish these lines, the affected passengers are still waiting for an official explanation and, failing that, compensation in line with international rules. It remains to be seen if Royal Air Maroc will finally choose to treat its passengers as customers, not just variables to be adjusted.
