Al Aroui

Al Aroui is an urban municipality in Nador province, in the Oriental region.¹ At the 2024 census it had 46,540 inhabitants in 11,844 households.² In 2014 there had been 47,599.³ In Nador province 81.0 per cent of people speak Darija in everyday life and 71.1 per cent Tarifit.⁴

The weekly market of Al Aroui was a meeting place of the Aït Bouyahya tribe and other tribes.⁵ In March 2019 the Ministry of Culture added the market gate to the national heritage list as a regional building and a place of local history.⁶ The ministry’s aim was to extend legal protection beyond archaeological sites and historic monuments to regional buildings and places of local memory.⁷

In 2005 national road 2 between Selouane and Al Aroui was upgraded to a dual carriageway over nine kilometres.⁸ Between the university in Selouane and the airport lies the Selouane industrial zone: 96 hectares, laid out under the national industrial-zone programme of the 1980s and developed in four phases.⁹

Nador-El Aroui airport, with the IATA code NDR and the ICAO code GMMW, is operated by the Office National des Aéroports.¹⁰ Its runway, oriented 08/26, is 3,000 metres long and 45 metres wide; ONDA names the Boeing 747 as the critical aircraft, and a Category I instrument landing system is available.¹¹ In its 2021 description ONDA gave the terminal as 5,000 square metres and 500,000 passengers a year, two million after the extension; the 54,000-square-metre apron had room for two aircraft each of the B747, B737 and ATR types.¹²

In July 2021 the airport opened a new terminal for two million passengers a year; the apron was extended by three stands and a car park with 580 spaces was built.¹³ By the end of November 2023 the airport had counted 956,790 passengers, 34 per cent more than in the same period of 2019 and 23 per cent more than in 2022.¹⁴ In December 2023 ONDA welcomed a millionth passenger of the year for the first time, on an Air Arabia Maroc flight from Amsterdam.¹⁵

In 2024 more than 1.05 million passengers used the airport, 3 per cent more than the year before.¹⁶ Destinations added in 2023 included Hamburg and Toulouse, and in summer there were also charter flights to Portugal and the Czech Republic.¹⁷ In its 2021 description ONDA listed routes to Cologne, Frankfurt, Hahn, Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Brussels, Charleroi, Beauvais, Montpellier, Barcelona and Mallorca, among others.¹⁸

For transport planning around the Marchica lagoon, the Agence Marchica and ONCF have outlined a tram-train link from Al Aroui airport to the port of Beni Ansar.¹⁹ At present the railway runs from Taourirt via Selouane and Nador to Beni Ansar; it opened in July 2009.²⁰