The name comes up every spring in families with a parent heading for Hajj, and it is easy to misread: it sounds like a simpler route open to anyone travelling to Makkah. This page explains, for Morocco as a whole, what the programme actually does, what the published figures say, and what has not been announced.
It does not describe the departure day at any particular airport. Terminal access, timings and what happens on the day belong to the departure guides for each city. Here we stay with the scheme itself.
What is the Makkah Route initiative?
It is a Saudi programme. Normally a pilgrim's entry into Saudi Arabia is processed after landing, in Jeddah or Madinah. Under the Makkah Route, those entry formalities are completed at the departure airport, in the pilgrim's own country1.
For a family, the practical meaning fits in one sentence: part of what used to wait for the pilgrim at the end of a long flight now happens before boarding, in Morocco. For an older parent, that is one queue fewer on arrival, at the moment when tiredness is at its worst.
What we do not describe, because our sources do not: the list of checks, their order, and how long they take. We do not rebuild them from hearsay.
Since when has Morocco taken part?
Morocco joined the initiative in 2022, which is 1443 in the Hijri calendar, according to the Saudi ambassador in Rabat as quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency1.
Since then the programme has come back each Hajj season, but it is announced season by season. The airports involved and the number of flights covered can change from one year to the next, so what happened in one season is no promise for the following one.
Does it apply to Umrah?
No. In Morocco the Makkah Route serves Hajj pilgrims1. Someone travelling for Umrah leaves like any other passenger and completes Saudi entry formalities on arrival.
The confusion comes from the name, and from the fact that one household may be preparing an Umrah for one parent and a Hajj for the other. The two journeys follow different calendars and steps; the official Hajj cycle is laid out in our guide to Morocco's Hajj lottery and its official steps.
What did the last season look like?
For the Hajj 1447 season, the Saudi Interior Ministry says the initiative covered 10 countries, Morocco among them, and served more than 388,000 pilgrims2.
That total covers every participating country and does not give a Moroccan figure. The only Moroccan number published is a forecast made before the season: for Hajj 2026, about 17,000 Moroccan pilgrims, nearly half of the 34,000 quota, were expected to use the Makkah Route through Rabat-Sale and Casablanca Mohammed V airports (about, forecast announced before the season)4.
So not every Moroccan pilgrim goes through the scheme. Whether a parent's flight is covered is a question for the trip's organiser once the season's flights are known.
Where does it fit in Hajj preparation?
At the very end. The Makkah Route comes on departure day, after the lottery, the medical fitness certificate and the payment of fees. The official steps are in our page on the Hajj lottery, and confirmed dates go into the guide's official calendar as soon as they are published.
If a word in the process stops you, the glossary explains it in two lines.
What the sources do not say yet
- Next Hajj season. No announcement yet on the Makkah Route in Morocco for the coming season, or on which airports will be involved.
- The Moroccan total. How many Moroccan pilgrims actually used the programme last season is not in our sources: only a pre-season forecast exists.
- The checks themselves. What is done at departure, in what order and how long it takes is not described in the sources we read.
- Which flights are covered. We do not know how Hajj flights are selected for the programme.