TAP’s decision to reinforce flights to Morocco in the wake of Friday’s earthquake extends to Monday, on flights to Marrakech and Casablanca, as there has been “plenty of demand”, the company said.
According to an official source from the airline, the flights are “in high demand”, which has led TAP to decide to “also reinforce the flights for tomorrow, Monday”, with two flights to Marrakech and two flights to Casablanca scheduled.
Over the two days, TAP is expected to transport around 1,500 people.
The airline announced on Saturday that it was doubling the number of seats available on today’s flights to Marrakech and Casablanca in Morocco, expecting to carry 616 passengers on the three scheduled flights.
In the case of today’s flights to Marrakech, TAP has opted to switch from Embraer 190s and 195s to two Airbus A321s, with each aircraft having the capacity to carry 221 people, giving a total of 442 passengers.
In addition to these two flights, TAP has also reinforced its flight to Casablanca, operated on an Airbus A320, which will increase the number of passengers from 118 to 174.
TAP’s decision comes in the wake of the earthquake that rocked the North African country on Friday night and has so far been responsible for 2,000 deaths and more than 2,000 injuries, according to the Moroccan Interior Ministry.
The earthquake, whose epicenter was in the town of Ighil, 63 kilometers southwest of the city of Marrakech, was felt in Portugal and Spain and reached a magnitude of 7.0 on the Richter scale, according to Morocco’s National Geophysics Institute.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) recorded the magnitude of the earthquake at 6.8.
