Royal Air Maroc has welcomed an Embraer E190 at Casablanca, as reported by Bladi.net. The aircraft, bearing the registration CN-RIA, touched down on Wednesday, October 21, following a positioning flight from Exeter in the southwest of England.
A Long Journey from Nairobi to Casablanca
The aircraft’s operational history stretches back to May 6, 2011, when it completed its maiden flight in Brazil. Shortly after, it joined the fleet of Kenya Airways under the registration 5Y-KYQ, carrying regional passengers across the continent until January 2025. Following its retirement from Kenyan service, the regional jet spent months parked in Nairobi and later Bydgoszcz, Poland, before arriving in England in May 2026, according to data from Planespotters. Maintenance work at Exeter Aerospace preceded its final delivery flight to Morocco under flight number AT8790.
Fleet Growth and Long-Term Expansion Targets
The CN-RIA is the first of two Embraer E190 jets leased by Royal Air Maroc from American lessor Azorra. A second aircraft, registered as CN-RHW, is scheduled to follow. With these additions, the carrier’s E190 fleet will grow from four to six aircraft, representing a 50 percent increase in its regional single-aisle capacity. The initial four Embraer jets entered the airline’s registry in 2024 following a transaction between leasing companies.
Alongside regional fleet updates, Royal Air Maroc continues to bolster its mainliner capacity with Boeing 737 MAX 8 deliveries. Two additional aircraft arrived on September 25 and 30, sourced through Aviation Capital Group, bringing the airline’s total count of the type to twenty jets, according to specialized aviation outlet NewsAero. These additions bring the carrier’s total fleet to 71 aircraft. The national carrier maintains a stated strategic roadmap to scale its operational capacity to 130 aircraft by 2030, with a long-term goal of reaching 200 planes by 2038.
