Families often hear about the Makkah Route secondhand: a cousin mentions it, a news clip shows pilgrims at an airport in Morocco, and the question follows. Does it concern my mother's trip? This page answers that for one airport, Rabat-Salé (RBA), the airport of the capital region.
It is written mainly for relatives abroad whose parent is preparing for Hajj from Rabat, Salé, Témara or Kénitra, and for anyone who wants a clear, sourced summary. Registration, the lottery and the rites are outside its scope. For the official Hajj cycle, see guideomra.ma's guide to Morocco's Hajj lottery.
Hajj flights from Rabat-Salé, and what the Makkah Route changed
Rabat-Salé was already a Hajj departure airport before the Makkah Route arrived. In 2023, 19 Hajj flights left from Rabat-Salé, more than from Agadir, Fez, Marrakech or Oujda1. For Hajj 2026, ONDA (Morocco's airports authority) counted 91 outbound flights from 9 Moroccan airports, Rabat-Salé among them3.
Before Hajj 2026, the Makkah Route had never operated at Rabat-Salé3. That season, the programme was extended to this airport for the first time3.
It started there on 4 May 2026, and a first flight left that same day4.
For families in the Rabat-Salé-Kénitra region, that meant a Hajj departure with pre-clearance could start at their own regional airport. It also meant a new airport routine that relatives had not seen before, which is why the questions keep coming.
What the sources do not give is a step-by-step account of the process inside the terminal at Rabat-Salé: which hall, which desks, in what order, and how long it takes. Rather than guess, ask the organiser of your relative's trip for the written instructions, and print them, so that a pilgrim from Salé or Kénitra does not depend on a phone battery inside the terminal.
How many pilgrims used it?
The honest answer is that we have a forecast, not a final count, and the forecast covers two airports together.
The pre-season forecast was that about 17,000 Moroccan pilgrims, nearly half of the 34,000 quota, would use the scheme across two airports, Rabat-Salé and Casablanca Mohammed V (about, forecast announced before the season)4.
Read that sentence with care:
- It is an expectation announced before Hajj began, not a figure published after it.
- It is shared between Rabat-Salé and Casablanca; we have found no figure for Rabat-Salé alone.
- It means that, by that forecast, the other half or so of Moroccan pilgrims would not travel through the scheme (about, forecast announced before the season)4.
So a family should not assume that every Hajj flight from Rabat-Salé is a Makkah Route flight. Only the trip's organiser can tell you whether your parent's own flight is a Makkah Route flight.
What does pre-clearance mean for a pilgrim?
In one line: Saudi entry formalities are done at the departure airport, before boarding, instead of after landing6. For the national rules of the scheme, read guideomra.ma's Makkah Route explainer. Here, what matters is the local consequence: a Hajj pilgrim on a covered flight completes Saudi entry formalities in the Rabat-Salé terminal, before boarding6.
Umrah from Rabat-Salé: why the scheme does not apply
No, and this is the point most worth repeating to a parent. At Rabat-Salé, the extension made for Hajj 2026 concerns Hajj, not Umrah3.
An Umrah pilgrim leaving Rabat-Salé, for instance on the direct flynas flight to Jeddah, checks in like any other passenger. Saudi entry is handled on arrival, as usual. Nothing about the Makkah Route changes that journey, whatever the season.
The confusion is understandable: the name sounds general, and the airport is the same. If you are organising an Umrah trip, our Umrah departure guide for Rabat-Salé is the page you need, and the Rabat to Jeddah flights page covers the direct route.
What can the family prepare?
Nothing here depends on a rule we cannot source. These are habits that help on any Hajj departure:
Step by step
- Ask the organiser, in writing, which airport, which hall and what time your parent reports to, and whether their flight is part of the Makkah Route.
- Plan how your parent reaches the airport. Our page on getting to Rabat-Salé airport covers the shuttle bus and app-booked taxis.
- Prepare for the goodbye at the entrance. No source we have read says how far relatives may accompany a Hajj pilgrim inside the terminal.
- Put the group leader's number in the phones of the relatives most likely to get a call that day.
This page stops at the airport door: anything about the rites, or religious practice during Hajj, is for an imam or a scholar your family trusts.
If your relative has not yet secured a Hajj place, the publisher of this site has written Wiki Tours' explainer on the agency route to Hajj registration. This page stays on the airport side of the trip.
Still to be confirmed
- Whether the Makkah Route returns to Rabat-Salé for the next Hajj. The next Hajj season is expected in spring: Dhu al-Hijjah 1448 would begin on 7 or 8 May 2027 (estimate, subject to moon sighting)8. No Makkah Route announcement for that season has been published in our sources.
- How many pilgrims actually used the scheme at Rabat-Salé, as opposed to the forecast for two airports.
- How a family can check whether one given Hajj flight from Rabat-Salé is covered.
- The order of the steps inside the terminal, and how long they take.
- How far relatives may go inside the Rabat-Salé terminal on a Hajj departure day.
We will update this page in place when the next season is announced, with the date of the change.