The Casablanca Mohammed V Airport was originally built by the United States in early 1943 following Operation Torch in World War II. It was named Berrechid Airfield and it served as an auxiliary airfield for Casablanca's Anfa Airport. The airfield handled diverse military traffic as a stopover en route to Port Lyautey Airfield, and to Marrakesh Menara Airport on the North African Cairo-Dakar route. In addition, it was the terminus of Mid-Atlantic route transatlantic flights via the Azores to Nova Scotia and airfields on the East Coast of the United States. In addition to its transportation role, the airfield supported the North African Campaign with the Twelfth Air Force 68th Reconnaissance Group operating photo-reconnaissance versions of the P-38 Lightning and P-51 Mustang. Part of the 68th first arrived at Angads Airport in Oujda in November 1942 and moved to Berrechid in March 1943 upon its completion. It flew both antisubmarine missions over the Atlantic and photo-reconnaissance combat missions over German-held territory until early September when it moved east to Massicault Airfield in Tunisia. With the end of the war in 1945, the airfield was handed over to the civil government. During the Cold War in the early and middle 1950s, the airfield was reopened as Nouasseur Air Base and was used as a United States Air Force Strategic Air Command staging area for B-47 Stratojet bombers pointed at the Soviet Union. These operations later moved to Ben Guerir Air Base. With the destabilisation of French government in Morocco, and Moroccan independence in 1956, the government of Mohammed V wanted the US Air Force to pull its bases out of Morocco, insisting on such action after American intervention in Lebanon in 1958. The United States agreed to leave in December 1959, and was fully out of Morocco by 1963. The U.S. felt that, with the long range of the B-52 and completion of Spanish bases in 1959, the Moroccan bases were no longer important. In 2022, Mohammed V Airport was ranked the 4th busiest airport in Africa. In May 2025 Morocco's airports authority Moroccan Airports Authority launched an international tender to build a new H-shaped terminal at Mohammed V International Airport in Casablanca at an estimated cost of US$1.6 billion. The terminal, designed in a “hub-style”, will increase capacity from roughly 15 million to 35 million passengers per year. It will form part of Morocco's Airports 2030 strategy and is expected to be completed by 2029 in time for the 2030 FIFA World Cup which Morocco will co-host with Spain and Portugal. The expansion project features: A new 3,700 m parallel runway, extended taxiways and a new 42 m air traffic control tower. An integrated high-speed rail (LGV) station linking the airport with Casablanca, Rabat and Marrakesh via the Al Boraq line. Earthworks began in mid-2025 with main construction slated to follow and full operation targeted for 2029.