Casablanca Mohammed V Airport: Services and means of transport
Mohammed V Airport – Casablanca is located nearly 30 km from the city center of Casablanca in the municipality of Nouaceur. With a capacity of 16.4 million passengers and 150,000 t / year of freight, it is the main airport in Morocco and one of the largest in Africa.
Served by 50 scheduled airlines and connected to 80 destinations, the airport handled a traffic volume of nearly 6.4 million passengers in 2009, with nearly 70,000 aircraft movements and nearly 54,000 tonnes of freight.
The history of the airport
Construction of the airport began in 1951 on behalf of the USAF which maintained there, under the name of Nouasseur Air Base, an air base for Strategic Air Command bombers. The Americans returned the base facilities to the Moroccan government on August 15, 1963.
In September 2007, the airport doubled its capacity with the inauguration of the new Terminal 2.
Today it is the hub of Moroccan airlines Royal Air Maroc, Jet4you, Air Arabia Maroc and Regional Air Lines.
Note that Casablanca airport has put in place means to accommodate the A380.
Cargo activity
The airport serves as a base for Royal Air Maroc Cargo but is also served by many freight companies. Among the most important are Saudi Arabian Airlines Cargo; Air France Cargo; DHL; FedEx; UPS or Turkish Airlines Cargo. Others, such as Lufthansa Cargo, Cathay Pacific Airways Cargo, Singapore Airlines Cargo, or Emirates SkyCargo are also part of the companies present in Casablanca but represent a lower activity rate on the platform. Regular destinations are Beijing, Chicago, Paris, Istanbul, Algiers, Port Harcourt, Dubai, Dallas and Brussels.
Access to the airport
– By highway
The highway, which connects Casablanca to Agadir, passes nearby and a slip road connects it to the airport. The airport is also accessible by secondary roads connecting Casablanca to Nouasser, either via Bouskoura () or via Médiouna ().
In order to lighten the highway, which is very saturated on the Casablanca – Berrechid section. A new motorway is under study and will connect Tit Mellil to Berrechid by 2014, passing near the airport from the east.
– By Train
The airport is served by TRAB Al Bidaoui with a frequency of 1 train per hour.
The Mohamed V Airport station is located on level -1 of terminal 1 and provides direct access to the interior of the airport.
Departures from the airport to Casablanca are between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. Departures from Casablanca to the airport are between 4.30am and 9.57pm from Ain Sebaa station.
The trip costs 40 MAD (3.6 €) in 1st class and 30 MAD (2.7 €) in 2nd class.
– By Taxi
The taxi rank is located on level 0 of Terminal 1. Taxis are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and are easily identifiable by their color (white), sign and taxi number.
The price of the trip to the center of Casablanca costs between 250 MAD (23 €) and 300 MAD (27 €) depending on the weight of the luggage.
– By shuttle bus
CTM and RAM bus shuttles connect the airport to downtown Casablanca throughout the day, the trip lasts an hour on average.
Services within the airport
– Hotels
The airport has two hotels, the Atlas Hotel, a 3-star hotel belonging to Atlas Hospitality, and a hotel inside the Duty Free area of Terminal 2 and which offers rooms for short periods exclusively for transit travelers. .
– Shopping malls
Several international brands are present at the airport, as well as several bank branches.
– Car parkings
Two car parks are available to travelers, one on arrival and the other on departure.
The economic hub formed by the airport
The airport is a major employment hub in the Grand Casablanca region; Around the airport infrastructure was built the Technopole de Nouasser, an international industrial and economic platform, bringing together several renowned companies belonging to cutting-edge sectors such as aeronautics and the pharmaceutical industry.