On Sunday, April 4, Spanish national flag carrier Iberia is operating a special repatriation flight for its citizens and residents stuck in the North African country of Morroco. The flight between Casablanca Mohammed V International Airport (CMN) and Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suárez Airport (MAD) will be operated using a 200 seat Airbus A321 aircraft.Customers who already have a ticket can travel on the flight for no additional cost, with other passengers able to purchase tickets at a reduced rate. The Casablanca to Madrid flight will depart at 16:40 and arrive at 19:20 local time.
To make a reservation for the flight, passengers are asked to call the Iberia call center.
Iberia's call center telephones are:
In Casablanca: +212 520 426 053
In Spain 900 111 500 and dialing from outside Spain +34 91 523 65 68
Morocco suspended flights on March 31
Morocco suspended air and sea links with France and Spain on Wednesday, March 31, 2021, to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Rabat's decision also included the closure of the Ceuta and Melilla Spanish enclaves.
The official Moroccan News Agency (MAP) announced the decision to suspend flights between Morocco and its two largest trading partners. When responding to the suspension of flights, Spain's foreign ministry said Morocco had "suspended flights to and from Spain and all passenger transport by boat," a move coordinated with Madrid.
The move caught many people by surprise, leaving Spanish citizens and residents stuck in Morocco with no way of getting home.
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3,000 Spanish residents may be in Morocco
Spain estimates that as many as 3,000 Spanish residents cannot return home after Morocco decided to suspend flights to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Euroweekly is reporting that Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, asked citizens to be patient, saying:
“We have to be, because, in the same way, that we put restrictions on other countries, they also put them, and when this happens, it is useless to pick up the phone and call the Government to solve the problem," the minister said, as per Euroweekly.
“But we all have to be tremendously responsible. In these moments of so much uncertainty in the borders and the conditions of access to other countries, the best thing is to abstain from traveling. It is the most prudent thing to do.
Along with the Iberia flight, the Spanish Embassy is also organizing a ferry to depart from Tangiers to Algeciras on Sunday, April 4, 2021.
The decision to suspend travel between Morocco, France, and Spain comes on the heels of spring school holidays in Europe that see many Moroccan families visit relatives. Currently, around 734,402 Moroccans live and work in Spain, making them the country's largest foreign community. France, meanwhile, has more than a million Moroccan's that account for nearly 20% of the country's immigrant population.
Entry requirements to Spain
To travel from Morocco to Spain, passengers over six years old need to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test carried out no more than 72 hours before their arrival in Spain.
The test result certificate or supporting proof of a PCR test must be original and written in either Spanish, English, French, or German. It can be presented to border guards in either a paper or electronic format. If you cannot present proof in any of the four above languages, you can have the documentation translated into Spanish by an official accredited body.
If you happen to be on tomorrow's Casablanca to Madrid flight, we would love to read all about it in the comments.