RABAT, Morocco (Reuters) - Morocco, eager to boost tourist arrivals by 1 million each year until 2010, is fully opening its market to European airlines to energize competition and integrate its sky into EU common air, its transport minister said on Monday.

"The goal of the open sky deal with the European Union is to benefit Morocco of the bloc air transport potential, and in that way it will help bringing the increased number of tourists Morocco needs," Karim Ghellab said.

Morocco initialed the so-called Open Sky pact with the 25-nation European Union two weeks ago and expects it to be effective in the next few months after its translation into European languages and formal endorsement by individual states.

"The Open Sky deal will be effective after approvals by the EU members in the next three or four months," said Ghellab, who is spearheading the country's key transport reforms to boost tourism and bolster the export-led economy's competitiveness.

Morocco, which eyes tourism as a vehicle of economic growth, envisions doubling the number of holidaymakers to 10 million in 2010 with an expected tourism revenue of 10 billion euros, more than triple the estimated earnings at present.

That is part of the country's drive to spur economic expansion and cut unemployment which is currently at an average of 10.8 percent but at more than 18 percent in main cities and much higher among thousands of university graduates.

The North African kingdom needs to boost air transport capacity and trim costs to lure and bring the additional tourists.

"Our country's policy offers the European airlines an open sky as well as a strong potential of growth because the additional tourists we want to lure here will be their passengers," Ghellab told Reuters in an interview.

Morocco liberalized aviation transport in 2004 before moving to reach the Open Sky deal with the EU which clears the remaining airline limitations and restrictions.

MOROCCO'S SKY INTEGRATES EU

"Thanks to that liberalization, 13 new airlines entered the Moroccan market, but that liberalization was carried out within the limits of bilateral cooperation with European states and has showed its limits," Ghellab said.

The open sky pact brings down all limitations for airlines inside Morocco and inside EU and expands their business opportunities, he added.

"With the Open Sky, there will be no limits for airlines, whether limits of nationality, of flight origin, of passenger capacity or limits of airports," Ghellab said.

Morocco also offers airlines the possibility of carrying passengers from its airports to other non-EU Mediterranean countries as its own airlines will be allowed to fly from one European city to another such as from Paris to London.

"The Open Sky accord makes the Moroccan sky the same as European skies for all airlines, including low-cost ones as far as rules, procedures and regulations are concerned," he added.

"Morocco offers the airlines excellent business opportunities , easy market access and strong market growth compared to a mature European market," he said.

Without such a deal and earlier liberalization, Morocco would have had to invest the equivalent of 66 percent of its whole domestic growth to increase airline capacity.

"Morocco would have had to spend $30 billion between now and 2010 just to buy new planes for its Royal Air Maroc airline from now to 2010 to carry all the additional tourists," Ghellab said.

Source: Reuters