Marrakesh Menara Airport (Berber languages: ⴰⵣⴰⴳⵯⵣ ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ ⵎⵉⵏⴰⵕⴰ, French: Aéroport Marrakech Ménara, Arabic: مطار مراكش المنارة, IATA: RAK, ICAO: GMMX) is an international airport serving Marrakesh, the capital city of the Marrakesh-Safi region in Morocco. It is an international facility that receives several European flights as well as flights from Casablanca and some of the Arab world nations. The airport served over 6.3 million passengers in 2019.
History
During World War II, the airport was used by the United States Army Air Forces Air Transport Command as a hub for cargo, transiting aircraft and personnel. It functioned as a stopover en route to Casablanca Airfield or to Agadir Airport on the North African Cairo–Dakar transport route for cargo, transiting aircraft and personnel.
Facilities
Terminal
Menara Airport has two passenger terminals housed in one large building. A third terminal has been built. The existing T1/T2 offer a space of 42,000 m2 and have a designed capacity of 9 million passengers/year. The separate freight-terminal has 340m2 covered space The air terminals (1 and 2) are 22,000 m2 (236,806 sq ft) and designed to handle 2,500,000 passengers per year. Menara is one of the six airports in Morocco where ONDA offers its special VIP service Salon Convives de Marque.
Runway and apron
Aircraft parking space of 125,000 square metres (1,345,489 sq ft) supports up to fourteen Boeing 737s and four Boeing 747s. The cargo terminal is 340 m2 (3,660 sq ft) of covered space. The paved runway is laid out in the direction 10/28 is 3,100 by 45 metres (10,171 ft × 148 ft). It can receive all modern jetliners up to the Boeing 747 in size. The airport is equipped with an ILS Cat II landing system and offers the following radio navigation aids: VOR – DME – NDB.
