Departure
95%
vs 95%
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Mohammed V International Airport is Morocco's principal international gateway, lying near Nouasseur some 30 km south-east of Casablanca. It began life as a wartime American-built airfield and has grown into the country's busiest airport and a major hub for Royal Air Maroc, offering two parallel hard-surfaced runways well over 12,000 feet in length with ILS approaches.
Mohammed V International Airport, known by its ICAO code GMMN and IATA code CMN, serves Casablanca and is operated by Airports of Morocco. It is named after King Mohammed V and today functions as the hub for Royal Air Maroc, Royal Air Maroc Express and Air Arabia Maroc, making it the busiest airport in Morocco and one of the busiest in Africa. For a simulator pilot, the field offers a very long pair of ILS-equipped hard runways and a busy mix of long-haul, regional and cargo traffic, giving a realistic large international-airport experience.
The airport lies in Nouaceur Province, in the locality of Nouasseur, roughly 30 km south-east of Casablanca city centre. It sits within controlled airspace appropriate to a major international airport, with approach and tower services provided as detailed below.
The airfield has two parallel physical runways aligned 17/35. Runway 17L/35R is 12,168-12,169 feet long, hard-surfaced and lit, with an ILS on the 35R threshold. Runway 17R/35L is 12,168 feet long, hard-surfaced and lit, and is equipped with ILS on both the 17R and 35L thresholds. Field elevation is 643 feet.
Approach control is available on 119.9 MHz and 121.3 MHz, with ATIS broadcast on 126.3 MHz and Tower on 118.5 MHz. Instrument approaches are supported by ILS on runways 35R, 17R and 35L.
The airport originated as a wartime airfield built by the United States in early 1943 following Operation Torch, then known as Berrechid Airfield, serving as an auxiliary field for Casablanca's Anfa Airport. It handled military traffic on the North African route to Marrakesh Menara and Port Lyautey, and was the terminus for trans-Atlantic flights routed via the Azores to Nova Scotia and the East Coast of the United States. The Twelfth Air Force's 68th Reconnaissance Group flew P-38 Lightning and P-51 Mustang photo-reconnaissance sorties from the field, moving there from Oujda in March 1943 and remaining until early September 1943 when it relocated to Tunisia. The airfield passed to civil control at the end of the war in 1945. During the early and middle 1950s it was reopened as Nouasseur Air Base, used by the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command as a staging base for B-47 Stratojet bombers, before these operations shifted to Ben Guerir Air Base. Following Moroccan independence in 1956, the government of Mohammed V pressed for the withdrawal of American forces, a process that concluded with the United States agreeing to leave in December 1959 and completing its departure from Morocco by 1963. On 1 April 1970 a Royal Air Maroc Sud Aviation Caravelle crashed on approach to the airport after losing control at about 500 feet, breaking in two with sixty-one of the eighty-two on board killed (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_V_International_Airport).
The airport is the busiest in Morocco and ranked the fourth busiest in Africa in 2022, serving as the hub for Royal Air Maroc, Royal Air Maroc Express and Air Arabia Maroc. In May 2025 the Moroccan Airports Authority launched an international tender for a new H-shaped terminal at an estimated cost of US$1.6 billion, intended to raise capacity from around 15 million to 35 million passengers a year as part of the Airports 2030 strategy, with completion targeted for 2029 ahead of the FIFA World Cup co-hosted by Morocco, Spain and Portugal. The expansion includes plans for a new parallel runway of about 3,700 metres, extended taxiways and a new 42-metre air traffic control tower (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_V_International_Airport).
