Casablanca: 150 aerospace companies have established operations in Morocco, generating an annual revenue of £2.5 billion, according to Morocco’s Minister of Industry and Trade, Ryad Mezzour.
According to Agence Marocaine De Presse, these companies provide 26,000 full-time jobs, primarily located in the Casablanca, Tangier, Rabat, and Fez regions. Minister Mezzour discussed these developments in an interview with the French daily Le Point, during the biannual Paris Air Show held at Le Bourget Airport.
Mezzour highlighted that a significant portion of the revenue comes from producing fuselages, structural components, cabin interiors, and wiring systems. He also touched upon the collaboration between Royal Air Maroc (RAM) and French company Safran on the CFM engine, mentioning an agreement to extend the partnership to the next-generation CFM Leap engine during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Morocco last October.
“Morocco provides all the necessary resources to handle this high-tech equipment, training 23,000 engineers each year, including 400 who enter the aerospace industry,” Mezzour noted. He emphasized Morocco’s competitive production costs, which are £25 per hour compared to £100-120 in Europe or the United States.
The minister outlined plans to expand Morocco’s aerospace offerings to include cabin outfitting and landing gear manufacturing, with the goal of establishing a final assembly line for commercial aircraft within the next decade. He expressed confidence that the sector’s annual revenue could double by 2030.
Additionally, Mezzour revealed that a study is underway regarding a potential aircraft order by Royal Air Maroc, with interest in the Airbus A220, a small, medium-haul aircraft ideal for RAM’s European routes.
The article’s author also noted that the Paris Air Show marked a significant achievement for Morocco with a major contract signed with Boeing. This agreement signifies a new phase in Boeing’s investment strategy in the Kingdom through a partnership with Casablanca A©ronautique, a subsidiary of French group Figeac Aero, for producing machined structural parts for the 737 MAX program.
This initiative is part of the ongoing implementation of a memorandum of understanding signed in 2016 between Boeing and Moroccan authorities, reinforcing the manufacturer’s commitment to bolstering Morocco’s industrial base and integrating its supply chains further into the Kingdom.