JetBlue announced yesterday that they’ll be officially joining forces with Royal Air Maroc to offer codeshare flights with Morocco’s national airline. While the two airlines have cooperated on flights on an interline basis since 2012, this advances the relationship from casually dating to full marriage, meaning a seamless experience in terms of flight purchasing and baggage handling through Morocco and beyond.

For Moroccans and other African/Middle Eastern passengers traveling to the US, this is great news. I’m a strong advocate for JetBlue and I think their products — especially the newer first class Mint product — are fantastic. As for US travelers, the deal may not be so wonderful. While Royal Air Maroc just unveiled their new 787 Dreamliner for trans-Atlantic flights, my experience on the airline was less than desirable. Perhaps this increased level of partnership will cause RAM to step up their game because currently, their game is on the Junior Varsity level when it comes to international travel.

Full press release here:

NEW YORK, NY — (Marketwired) — 03/02/15 — JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ: JBLU), New York’s Hometown Airline™, and Royal Air Maroc, the flagship carrier of the Kingdom of Morocco, have today filed an application with the U.S. Governments to enter into a codeshare partnership that will offer customers easy connections between the two airlines’ networks.

Customers will enjoy combined ticketing and baggage transfer when connecting between the two carriers. Flights will become available for sale after receipt of regulatory approval.

Under the proposed codeshare agreement, Royal Air Maroc will place its “AT” airline code on JetBlue flights between New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and 22 destinations in the U.S., including Boston (BOS), Chicago O’Hare (ORD), Denver (DEN), Los Angeles (LAX), Orlando (MCO), San Francisco (SFO), Tampa (TPA) and Washington D.C. (IAD). Additionally, JetBlue and Royal Air Maroc customers will be able to easily purchase a single ticket with seamless bag transfers via Casablanca’s Mohammed V International Airport (CMN) to Marrakesh and 15 other Moroccan destinations, as well as a further 24 destinations in West Africa. Less than two weeks ago, Royal Air Maroc introduced its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft on the Casablanca-New York/JFK route.

“We are excited to expand our partnership with Royal Air Maroc and offer our customers a great selection of destinations across Morocco, West Africa and the Middle East full of varied culture, cuisines and spectacular nature,” said Scott Laurence, senior vice president, airline planning, JetBlue.

The airlines have successfully partnered on an interline basis since 2012, and look forward to the further cooperation this codeshare agreement brings.