Mohammed V International Airport
Mohammed V International Airport مطار محمد الخامس الدول | |||||||||||||||
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| File:670px-MohammedVAirport.jpg NASA image of Mohammed V International Airport from above | |||||||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||||||
| Operator | ONDA | ||||||||||||||
| Location | 656 | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 200 ft / 61 m | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 33°22′05″N 07°35′17″W / 33.36806°N 7.58806°W | ||||||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||||||
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Mohammed V International Airport (IATA: CMN, ICAO: GMMN) (Arabic: مطار محمد الخامس الدولي; transliterated: Matar Muhammad al-Khamis ad-Dowaly) is an airport in Casablanca, Morocco. It is a hub of Royal Air Maroc. The Casablanca airport was named after King Mohammed V of Morocco.
The Mohammed V Airport is twinned with the Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport and Yaser Arafat International Airport.
Traffic
JAN-SEP 2007
- Passengers: 4.355.684 (+12,18%)
- Movements: 54,878 (+6.26%)
- Cargo (tons): 46,207,85 (+12.15%)
Source [1]
2006
- Passengers: 5,071,411
- Movements: 65,111
- Cargo (tons): 55,673
2005
- Passengers: 4,456,639
- Movements: 59,621
- Cargo (tons): 50,285
2004
- Passengers: 3,803,479
- Movements: 52,336
- Cargo (tons): 47,152
Average Growth Rate 1994-2006
- Passengers: +7.26%
- Movements: +7,05%
- Cargo (tons): +2.98%
Source: ONDA
History
Origins
The Casablanca Mohammed V Airport was the site of a former USAF Air base known as Nouasseur Air Base. Even today, most locals still refer to the airport simply as "Nouasseur", this comes from the name of the suburb where it is located.
During the early and middle 1950s, the air base supported the command's emergency war plan as staging areas for bombers pointed at the Soviet Union.
By August 1950 Operational Storage Sites for nuclear weapons storage were under contract in French Morocco at Nouasseur, Sidi Slimane, and Ben Guerir. These storage sites were under construction in May 1951.
Nouasseur [sometimes mis-spelled Nousasseur] was critically important for SAC during its first reflex exercises. Nouasseur hosted the B-36 bomber, with an asphalted-concrete runways of 12,000.
With the destabilization of French government in Morocco, and Moroccan independence in 1956, the government of Mohammed V wanted the US Air Force to pull out of the SAC bases in Morocco, insisting on such action after American intervention in Lebanon in 1958. The United States agreed to leave as of December 1959, and was fully out of Morocco in 1963. SAC felt the Moroccan bases were much less critical with the long range of the B-52, and with the completion of the Spanish bases in 1959.
Incidents
On July 1, 1967, a Ceskoslovenske Aerolinie Ilyushin IL-18 which had been diverted to Casablanca because of fog at its original destination of Rabat, crashed 8 miles from the runway on its second attempt to land at Casablanca.
On April 1, 1970, a Royal Air Maroc Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle crashed on approach to Casablanca Mohammed V airport when it lost control at a height of about 500 feet. The fuselage broke in two. 61 of the 82 passengers and crew were killed.
On January 21, 1995, a Royal Air Maroc Boeing 747-400 operating as Flight 205 was preparing to leave Montréal-Mirabel International Airport for New York and Casablanca. The pilot started taxiing forward, believing that deicing was complete and the parking stand was clear of any vehicles. It knocked down two deicing vehicles that were still in place in front of both horizontal stabilizers, killing three ground crew members and injuring two others.
Transport links
Car
Mohammed V airport can be reached via the A7 Casa-Berchid motorway via Bouskoura. From Rabat Through the A3 then the A5.
Rail
The train station is situated at level -1 in the arrivals area of terminal 1. Trains depart from the airport to Casablanca every hour between 06.50 and 22.50. Trains depart from Casablanca to the airport every hour between 06.38 and 22.38. Journey time is approximately half an hour. the website of the Office National des Chemins de Fer for the most up-to-date information on ticket prices (www.oncf.ma).
Bus
Bus company CTM operates regular services to Casablanca Mohammed V airport from the city center. Journey time is approximately one hour, and ticket prices and further information can be obtained via telephone numbers: +212 (0)22 36 13 04, +212 (0)22 36 07 73, and +212 (0)22 44 83 76.
Taxi
The taxi rank is located at level 0 of the arrivals area. The base rate for a journey to Casa is 200.00dh.
Passenger Services
Hotels
Casablanca Mohammed V Airport has 2 airport hotels, the first one being the Atlas Hotel which is a 3 star hotel owned by Atlas Hospitality (a subsidiary of the Royal Air Maroc Group). There is also a hotel inside the transit area of terminal 2 which offers rooms for shorter periods exlusively for transiting passengers. Additionally, there is a planned 4 star hilton hotel in the immediate vicinity of the Airport.
Airlines and destinations
Passenger
The following airlines fly to Mohammed V International Airport:
- Aigle Azur (Paris-Orly)
- Air Algérie (Algiers, Oran)
- Air France (Lyon, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Marseille)
- Air Malta (Malta, Catania)
- Air Mauritanie (Nouakchott)
- Air Senegal International (Dakar)
- Alitalia (Milan-Malpensa, Rome-Fiumicino)
- British Airways
- operated by GB Airways (London-Heathrow)
- Brussels Airlines (Brussels)
- EasyJet (Madrid, Lyon)
- EgyptAir (Cairo)
- Emirates (Dubai)
- Etihad Airways (Abu Dhabi)
- Iberia Airlines (Madrid)
- operated by Air Nostrum (Valencia)
- operated by Clickair (Barcelona)
- Jet4you (Brussels-Charleroi, Paris-Orly, Lyon, Marseille, Milan-Malpensa)
- Kuwait Airways (Kuwait City, Rome-Fiumicino)
- Libyan Airlines (Tripoli)
- Lufthansa (Frankfurt)
- MyAir (Milan-Bergamo, Venice)
- Qatar Airways (Doha, Tripoli)
- Royal Air Maroc (Abidjan, Accra, Agadir, Algiers, Amsterdam, Bamako, Barcelona, Beirut, Bologna, Bordeaux, Brazzaville, Brussels, Cairo, Conakry, Cotonou, Dakar, Dakhla, Douala, Düsseldorf, Errachidia, Essaouira, Fez, Frankfurt, Freetown, Geneva, Istanbul-Atatürk, Jeddah, Kinshasa [Starting April 2008], Laayoune, Lagos [Starting April 2008], Las Palmas, Libreville, Lille, Lisbon, Lome, London-Heathrow, Lyon, Madrid, Malabo, Marrakech, Marseilles, Milan-Malpensa, Monrovia, Montpellier, Montreal, Mulhouse, Nador, Nantes, New York-JFK, Niamey, Nice, Nouakchott, Oran, Ouagadougou, Ouarzazate, Oujda, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Paris-Orly, Riyadh, Rome-Fiumicino, Sevilla, Strasbourg, Tangier, Torino, Toulouse, Tripoli, Tunis, Valencia, Venice, Yaounde, Zürich)
- Regional Air Lines (Agadir, Al Hoceima, Errachidia, Essaouira, Gran Canaria, Goulimime, Las Palmas, Lisbon, Malaga, Marrakech, Nador, Oujda, Tangier, Tan Tan, Valencia, Villa Cisneros)
- Saudi Arabian Airlines (Jeddah, Riyadh)
- Spanair (Madrid)
- Syrian Arab Airlines (Damascus)
- Tunisair (Tunis)
- Turkish Airlines (Istanbul-Atatürk)
A third terminal, under construction, is projected to double the passenger capacity of the airport. They are using terminal 3 for Royal Air Maroc flights to Europe and North America until terminal 2 is completed. The terminal is expected to be in use in 2007, with 10 jetways, in addition to the 6 in the old terminal.
There are 24 aircraft stands on the apron of the airport.
Cargo
The following are the main cargo operators at Mohammed V airport:
However, as part of the new development of the airport as an aeronautics hub, and due to the importance of casablanca as one of the main trading and industrial cities in the southern mediterranean, the Cargo operations at CMN are due to expand in the next few years with a new 30,000 sq meter cargo facility due to open in 2008 with an annual processing capacity of 150,000 tonnes.