(Ecofin Agency) - Royal Air Maroc (RAM) will officially become a full member of Oneworld, a global airline alliance that eases connections for travelers and ties together multiple loyalty programs, on March 31, 2020. The membership approval follows a unanimous vote of the alliance’s current 13 member companies on Tuesday, December 10, 2019.

According to Hamid Addou, RAM’s CEO, the membership process for the Moroccan airline only took 15 months whereas it takes 18 to 20 months on average. “This is largely due to the fact that our systems were at a higher level, which facilitated their consistency with those of the alliance,” he explained.

RAM will thus become the first African company to be a full member of Oneworld. With its network of more than 100 destinations in 49 countries, Royal Air Maroc will add 34 new destinations and 21 countries to the alliance's map bringing Oneworld’s  network to 1,069 airports in 178 countries and territories.

The current members of Oneworld are American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Japan Airlines, LATAM Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, S7, SriLankan Airlines, and Iberia.

All these companies make up nearly 3,500 aircraft and more than 1,000 destinations worldwide. It is the third-largest airline grouping after Star Alliance (including Egyptair, South African Airways, and Ethiopian Airlines) and SkyTeam (including Kenya Airways).

Romuald Ngueyap