Welcome to my Royal Air Maroc Trip Report!
This is Royal Air Maroc's Boeing 737-8 (CN-MAY) featuring the Royal Moroccan Football Federal Partner special livery. I photographed this aircraft at Casablanca Airport (CMN).
Before I begin, I like to dedicate these 4 parts of my Royal Air Maroc trip reports to my mum for being there for me all these years, love you mum! Glad I went with you on this trip. :)
I wanted to take my mum somewhere this year after the successful Lisbon trip the year before and so I did a bit of research on which cities to visit. My few options were Vienna (Austria), Casablanca (Morocco), Santiago (Chile) and Rio De Janeiro (Brazil) and in the end after much consideration, I decided on Casablanca as it would be both a new destination for both of us and less expensive than flying to the South American countries. Not only that, RAM would be a new airline for me and for my mum, it would be her first time visiting South Africa and the flight time is bearable for her. So with that destination set, all I had to do is to decide on which cities to visit and of course my favourite part, the hotel and accommodation were all decided by me.
It was an easy decision choosing this airline and the airline's website booking allowed us to do a short layover at Casablanca which I decided to take up that option, arriving in Casablanca and staying for a night there before spending the remaining days at Marakkesh. I wanted to take it easy for both of us, so we decided to stick to these two cities and besides at that time, some of the beautiful cities were still recovering from the heavy weather that happened not too long ago.
So without further ado, let's find out more about this African representative of the Oneworld Alliance member!
My ride: CN-ROR
Flight Route: LGW-CMN
My travelling experience
Welcome on board!
What's provided for each passenger?
Our entertainment
Drop-down screen
Lavatory
My one and only window view photo.
My flight summary
Welcome to Casablanca Airport!
With that said, the journey continues - see you in my next blog post!
Booking with the airline
I used the mobile app to do the booking and it is quite user-friendly and had no issues navigating, so overall it was a pleasant experience. Likewise with the website, I used it do a check on my booking and was able to read through the conditions and add-ons without problem.
I had a few flight options with different timing and also aircraft type. As I wanted to add it's subsidiary (RAM Express) to my flight logbook, I had to choose the evening flight from Casablanca to Marrakech in order to fly with this airline and it would be operated by the ATR-72-600. The airfare at this time of booking was not too bad, I paid about Euro $400 per person for the entire itinerary. On the return flight, we would fly back to London Gatwick from Marrakech with a brief layover at Casablanca.
This is the itinerary I chose for both ways. Flying there from London Gatwick and from back to London Heathrow, I can also try out the airline's Boeing 737 MAX 8.
We departed on Saturday so that my mum can go back on the day before her birthday to celebrate with the rest of the family.
We were able to do our web check-in without issue.
Like most of the other apps, you don't need to register in order for the app to store your flight itinerary.
Our journey to London Gatwick
I met my mum at her place and we took the district line to Blackfriars underground station. From there, we walked over to the national rail station.
The information board of the trains. No matter what this is not as complicated as the ones in Japan (Shinkansen).
I purchased my ticket and it cost me around 16 pounds for the one way ticket.
There are clear signs leading you to the correct platform.
The platform
The train information display is clear and easy to understand.
That's how the train looks like.
There were a few commutors also heading to the airport.
Checking what aircraft I was flying on, CN-ROR gets the honour to fly us to Casablanca.
The aircraft had taken off about half an hour ago.
London Gatwick Station
Once we reached the station, we followed the signboard towards south terminal. This airport is smaller than London Heathrow so to navigate around is not as time consuming.
About London Gatwick Airport
This airport with the airport code of LGW is one of the several airports based in London. There are 4 more airports based in this city, they are London Luton, London Stansted, London City, and London Heathrow.
This airport is situated in West Sussex, about 50 kilometres south of Central London. It was first opened in May 1958 and is a hub for British Airways. With 2 terminals, South and North, these terminals help to bring in many passengers making it the 2nd busiest airport in the UK in terms of number. This airport may have 2 runways (runway 08L/26R and 08R/26R) but they cannot be used at the same time due to how close proximity they are so that means only one runway can be used and if the main runway is not in operation, the other runway will be used. There are plans to expand this airport with a possible 3rd terminal and a 2nd runway (plan has been approved by the government) to be able to handle more traffic.
Map layout of London Gatwick Airport
(Photo: Airportmaps.com)
Welcome to London Gatwick!
We reached the departure hall level.
Following the human traffic and signboard to the terminal.
The list of airlines based in the south terminal.
We need to walk through this terminal to get to the airport shuttle train station.
This is the departure hall of the south terminal.
This way to the train shuttle to the north terminal.
North Terminal
This way to the terminal.
This looks familiar as I had arrived in London earlier with Saudia at this terminal.
There are cafes at the landside but if you are looking for food and have a ticket to somewhere else, I recommand you to look for good at the airside as there are a good variety of cafes/restaurants over there.
Complimentary airport wifi is available.
Zone D is where we had to go.
Here is zone D.
The check-in desks for Royal Air Maroc, luckily the queue was not long.
We received our boarding passes for both flights.
Once that was done, we headed towards the airside.
Immigration was quick as we just need to scan our passport and that's it then after that we went through security check.
Airside
Looking at the information board, it is quite obvious who dominates this terminal.
As usual, we had to go through the duty-free shop.
Nothing in here caught our attention.
Here we are, at the airside.
It was quite crowded.
We decided to grab something at a restaurant.
One thing for sure, there are far more shops and restaurants to explore than the landside.
This is what I had at the restaurant, the Red Lion.
I can't remember what is this but it was not bad.
Accompanied by my favourite gingle beer drink.
Once we finished our meals, we decided to explore abit before heading over to the gate.
I did a check on our aircraft's location and it was descending into LGW.
It was better to get out of this crowded area.
Walking towards our gate.
This part of the airside looks like a hospital building, don't you agree?
Those aircraft are parked at the south terminal.
There are airport lounges located at this part of the terminal.
I decided to head back to the main concourse to have a last look.
The overview of the departure hall at the main concourse.
Back to the gate area
There are travellators along this area.
Almost there.
At this airport, remember to give yourself some time to get over to your flight's gate.
This is my ride, CN-ROR.
Off we go!
Another look of our aircraft.
Entering the jetbridge
We had to wait over here for a short while.
This is my 2nd African airline experience! My first goes to Ethiopian Airlines which I had flown several times.
A member of the Oneworld alliance
The information of the aircraft
My ride: CN-ROR
Photo: Teemu Pesonen
Distance: 2,065 km
Average Flight Time: 2 hours 45 minutes
Airlines flying on this route: Royal Air Maroc
My Seat: 23A
Photo: Aerolopa.com
Date of departure: 17th February 2026
Airline: Royal Air Maroc
Flight: AT803
Route: LGW-CMN
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800
Registration: CN-ROR
Seat: 23A changed to 23C
Departure Terminal: North
Gate: 52
Load: 80%
Flight Time: (Less than 3 hours based on the Captain's announcement)
Actual Flight Time: 3 hours
Schedule Departure: 1610
Boarding: 1530
Push Back: 1600
Take Off: 1611
Schedule Arrival: 1925
Actual Arrival: 1912
Departure Runway: 08R
Departure Weather: Cloudy
Arrival Runway: 35L
Arrival Weather: Clear
Once on board, I realised this gentleman was sitting at my seat but the first thing that I noticed was how dirty the window is, I told my mum, it's ok, let him have it. Luckily for me, my mum was alright with sitting in the middle seat so I took the aisle seat for this flight. However, I still think that passengers should be aware of where they are sitting and not either act blur or hoping that passenger in that seat will just give up to them.
Anyway, once our aircraft pushed back, the Captain made the announcement and we were on our way. The best part about this is we departed 10 minutes ahead of schedule, all thanks to the passengers and the ground staff for making this possible. Once we were on our way, we lifted off into the cloudy weather but our ride was to the Northern Africa city was mostly smooth. We kept ourselves occupied with our favourite card game and in between our meal service was served to us, you can check out those photos below.
Inflight service sadly didn't give us a good impression as their body language showed me that they couldn't wait to end their duty but at least they were professional and completed the meal service. As for entertainment, there was only the overhead TV screen that showed limited shows including an old classic black and white Charlie Chaplin's show!
We arrived into Casablanca about 13 minutes ahead of schedule and the first thing I need to do over there was to change for dirhams (the Moroccon's currency). This currency is considered a closed currency so that means you can't do overseas trade with this money and one can only change for this money in the country itself. This was certainly a new experience for me!
Business Class
There are 12 seats configured in a 3-3 arrangement in this cabin with a seat width of around 20-21 inches and legroom space of around 38 inches according to my observation. These seats can be recline up to 3 inches. Although these seats are more spacious but they are the old basic type of seats which offers no seatback inflight entertainment screen. I did consider paying more to upgrade both of us to this class cabin, but in the end, we felt it was not worth it.
There is a partition wall, separating the economy and business class cabins.
The legroom space is certainly one of the pros of this seat.
There are no usb charging ports in this class.
Truly a flashback to the olden days of flying!
Whatever it is, these old seats bring back nostagia memories of my flying adventures in the 90s and early 2000s.
Economy Class
This cabin consists of 147 seats arranged in a 3-3 configuration and the seat width is around 17 inches. As for the legroom space, I believe it should be around 31 inches. Just like the business class seats, there are also no USB charging ports and individual entertainment IFE system. Wifi connectivity is not installed on this aircraft as the upcoming Boeing 737 MAX 8 or the future aircraft order would replace this aircraft.
This is the first few rows of the economy class seats.
Seat 14A and F window seats are to be avoided as the seat and window are not aligned.
The cabin view
Cabin view during inflight with the dropdown screen activated.
View of the cabin from the rear of the aircraft
The old Boeing 737 style cabin interior
The cabin emergency procedure instructions
The cabin crew at work!
Another view of the cabin
View from my seat
At this point, we were preparing to land.
The seat of the economy class
We were waiting for departure.
These may be the old seats but it was bearable for the 3 hours flight.
The emergency row seats.
No headrest on these seats.
This is row 14K seat, you need to bend forward in order to look out of the window.
More photos of the seat
Legroom space is slightly tight for me.
These seats are matched with the red carpet.
The front view
A true economy class experience
The seat pocket is located below the tray table.
The tray table's size is capable of handling the size of a laptop.
This old style Boeing interior is replaced by the Boeing Sky Interior which is much more comfortable and pleasing to look at.
For a 3 hours flight, this seats are fairly comfortable but I won't fly more than that in this cabin.
Would you like to see me reviewing more African Airlines?
Disposal Bag
Inflight magazine
Safety Card
Inflight meals
Both of us choose different options
This is the beef option which comes with bread, yogurt, condiments and a choice of cold or hot beverages.
This is the chicken option which also comes with the same side dishes.
I had a cup of apple juice for my beverage.
Our entertainment
Since the overhead tv screen didn't interest us with the programmes, we decided to play our favourite card game - 'Big2 aka Daidee'.
Drop-down screen
Charlie chaplin classic show, matches the atmosphere of the cabin well.
The inflight map
We started our descent and was getting prepared for arrival.
Lavatory
This is the lavatory located at the rear, it was small.
My one and only window view photo.
I was supposed to sit on the window seat but a male passenger was sitting there but end up, I decided to sit on the aisle seat since the window was very dirty (as shown below).
My flight summary
Welcome to Casablanca Airport!
It was nice to be able to walk around after the flight.
We had a good 10 minutes of walking from the gate to the immigration.
One last look at our aircraft! Thanks for the ride, CN-ROR!
There were a bit of queue to use the toilets.
The airport Wifi is complimentary.
Anyone else is a fan of the passport stamp? More airport these days are going digital but I still prefer the stamp chop onto my passport.
Immigration took a short while and the officer even engaged with a friendly conversation with both of us, recommending places to visit, how nice of him!
This is the arrival hall (landside).
The first thing I had to do is to look for the currency exchange counter.
Once we had the currency exchanged done, I called for Uber and we made our way out.
The temperature is at a cooling 20 degrees celcius.
The exterior of the airport
We walked to the pick up point where our ride drove us to our hotel.
One last look!
Stay tuned for the next part!
My rating
Airline Website/Mobile App: 4/5
Airport Experience (London Gatwick): 4/5
Inflight Service: 2.5/5
Seat Comfort: 3/5
Inflight Entertainment: 2.5/50
Cabin Ambiance: 3.5/5
Cabin Condition: 4/5
Cleanliness: 3/5
Inflight Meal/Beverage: 3/5
Punctuality: 5/5
Total Score: 36.5/50
Percentage: 73%
Conclusion
It is certainly great to be able to travel with someone for a change. This trip is meant to be a gift for my mum to let her see Africa for the first time and I am glad to be able to see this part of the world and trying out a new airline as well. While the experience is not as fantastic as the top airlines out there, it was still one to remember with the airline offering basic amenities with the old cabin showing its age. This brings back the olden days of flying without the inflight entertainment individual screens, cabin installed with the older generation of seats and the old Boeing cabin interior with condition of the cabin looked like they have seen better days. In addition, the cabin crew seemed disinterested in their jobs but at least they served us our inflight meals though the quality is pretty ordinary. Flying with this airline, do remember to bring your own entertainment if you are flying on the Boeing 737 or ATR-72. However for the Boeing 787, that aircraft has IFE entertainment individual screens installed for that aircraft is primarily used for high demand medium haul and long haul routes.
Overall, it felt like a budget airline with only the complimentary inflight meal the main difference comparing to one. For this aircraft, it is reaching 20 years old in a couple of years time so it doesn't have many years left before being replaced by newer aircraft, the 737 MAX 8. For that, the airline will not or has no plans to refurblish any of the older Boeing 737-800 as they are currently counting down to retirement in the near future.
A preview to my next blog post: Radisson Blu Hotel Casablanca City Centre (Morocco)
Have a good one!
Charles Ryan
For the part 2 of this trip report, stay tuned!
For the previous trip report: (Flying with Saudia Part 2: JED-LGW Boeing 787-9), click here
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