Royal Air Maroc is gearing up for a major expansion, launching a wide-reaching pilot recruitment drive both at home and abroad. With air travel booming and plans to grow its fleet to around 200 aircraft by 2037, the airline is preparing for a significant transformation that hinges as much on people as on planes.
This shift in strategy hasn’t come out of nowhere. Over recent months, the airline has quietly laid the groundwork for this next chapter. In June, it began recruiting 96 student pilots through a training program designed to address the sharp rise in future demand. While modest in scale, the move signaled the start of a much larger overhaul.
Right now, Royal Air Maroc operates with a fleet of just over 50 aircraft. To hit its 2037 target, the company will need to quadruple not just the number of planes, but also the crews that fly them. Given that it typically takes three to four years to fully train a pilot—plus additional certification time for next-generation aircraft like the Boeing 787 and Airbus A220, already part of RAM’s lineup—the clock is ticking.
To meet the challenge, the airline is diversifying its recruitment strategies. In addition to training new pilots in Morocco, it’s now actively looking to bring in seasoned professionals from abroad. According to sources familiar with the plan, RAM aims to hire international pilots, especially to strengthen its long-haul operations. At the same time, the airline is exploring incentives to retain senior pilots nearing retirement, a critical move as the global competition for qualified flight crew continues to intensify.
This push for talent is part of a broader momentum building across Morocco’s aviation and tourism sectors. The country welcomed a record 17.5 million visitors in 2024, and that number is still climbing. With government strategies focused on infrastructure investment and positioning Morocco as a regional air hub, RAM stands to gain directly from this upswing. Expanding routes, increasing flight frequencies, and entering new markets all demand a rapid operational scale-up.
Although RAM has kept the finer details of its long-term plan under wraps, its leadership understands the urgency. Recruiting, training, and integrating hundreds of pilots within a decade will require significant resources and forward planning. The current phase is all about laying that foundation—building the human capital that will carry the airline through its most ambitious phase yet.
Ultimately, this hiring campaign isn’t just about numbers—it’s about national aviation capacity. As Morocco looks to elevate its profile in tourism, diplomacy, and trade, Royal Air Maroc must also rise to meet those ambitions—flying further, faster, and higher than ever before.
