Flights to Zanzibar : Zanzibar is a spice island, a thrilling holiday destination in East Africa. Zanzibar has sweetest beaches and the remains of torn houses and forts which represent oldest architecture. Zanzibar is home one World Heritage Site; the famous Stone Town. Stone Town is locally called “Mji Mkongwe”, (a Swahili word for old town). It is an historic site of Zanzibar built in the Portuguese era. This Stone Town shows the architectural designs of Arabians, Persians, Indians and British. Zanzibar is endowed with various attractions including the Stone Town, Zanzibar Beach, spices, Jozani Forest, Nungwi, Forodhani Market, Palace Museum, House of Wonders, the Old Fort and many others. A trip to Zanzibar is a must for any safari-goer. The question is how do you reach this spice island? There many means of transport whose destination is Zanzibar including flights.
Zanzibar has the second largest airport in Tanzania, Kisauni Airport (ZNZ). This airport receives about 2100 flights per month, an average of 70 flights per day. About 25 airports around the world have direct flights to Zanzibar. However, only seven airports in Tanzania offer domestic flights to Zanzibar. Flights from Dar es Salaam (DAR) and Arusha (ARK) are the most frequent flights to Zanzibar. Zanzibar (ZNZ) also receives some non-stop flights from the most distant airports. One of these flights is from Amsterdam (AMS) that covers a distance of about 4520 kilometers spending 8 hours and 45 minutes.

The choice of a flight from anywhere in the world to Zanzibar heavily depends on two factors; first is your budget and second is time you want to spend on a flight. There are cheapest flights for budget travelers and there are also business class flights for luxury travelers. Most cheap flights have at least one stop and they take so long time. Business class flights are faster, expensive and non-stop. Therefore, if your budget allows you to save time, book a business class flight but if you have more time to save your money consider booking a cheap flight. The cost of a flight also depends on how long you have booked before the travel date and the departure time. Tickets booked about one month before the travel are much cheaper. Flights departing in the morning are costlier than those departing in the evening or night.
Airlines doing flights to Zanzibar
Zanzibar is a splendid island such that 24 airlines companies in the world and three alliances have their airlines doing flights her airport, Kisauni Airport (ZNZ). Coastal Aviation operates the most flights to Zanzibar connecting 6 airports to Kisauni Airport (ZNZ). However, some airlines do seasonal flights to Zanzibar while others do frequent flights. Some of airlines organizing the frequent flights including Coastal Aviation, Auric Air, Precision Air, Air Tanzania, Neos, Air Excel, Turkish Airlines, Oman Air, KLM, Edelweiss Air, UTair Express and Condor. Alliances flying to Zanzibar are Oneworld, SkyTeam and Star Alliance.
Airports with direct flights to Zanzibar
Let’s have a look on these 25 airports that have direct flights to Zanzibar. Please note that, an acronym in the bracket is the code of the respective airport. These airports include Arusha (ARK), Pemba Island (PMA), Dar es Salaam (DAR), Mombasa (MBA), Grumeti (GTZ), Seronera (SEU), Tanga (TGT), Doha (DOH), Kilimanjaro (JRO), Dubai (DXB), Muscat (MCT), Kyiv (KBP), Addis Ababa (ADD), Abu Dhabi (AUH), Amsterdam (AMS), Entebbe (EBB), Frankfurt (FRA), Istanbul (IST), Johannesburg (JNB), Milan (Malpensa) (MXP), Nairobi (WIL), Paris (CDG), Rome (Fiumicino) (FCO) and Zurich (ZRH). About 16 out of 25 airports have Business class flights to Zanzibar while 9 out of 25 airports offer normal flights. These 9 include Pemba Island (PMA), Grumeti (GTZ), Seronera (SEU), Milan, Malpensa (MXP), Rome, Fiumicino (FCO), Arusha (ARK), Nairobi (WIL), Tanga (TGT) and Kyiv (KBP).
Intercontinental flights to Zanzibar
There are non-stop intercontinental flights to Zanzibar despite the fact that none of them come from the North America, Southern America, Central America, the Caribbean, Southern Asia, China, Japan, Eastern Asia, South-Eastern Asia, Central Asia and Oceania. These non-stop intercontinental flights are from Europe and the Middle-East. Non-stop intercontinental flights from Europe and Middle-East are classified into seasonal flights and year-around flights.
Seasonal flights are conducted during a specific duration of time, usually a month or two months. These flights include flights from; Malpensa, Milan (MXP) and Fiumicino, Rome (FCO) by Neos, Paris (CDG) by Air France (SkyTeam), Amsterdam (AMS) by KLM (SkyTeam), Frankfurt (FRA) by Condor, Zurich (ZRH) by Edelweiss Air and from Kyiv (KBP) by SkyUp Airlines. The only year-round flight to Zanzibar is from Kyiv and is done by UTair.

Seasonal flights from the Middle-East or Western Asia to Zanzibar include from Abu Dhabi (AUH) by Etihad Airways, from Istanbul (IST) by Turkish Airlines (Star Alliance) while year-round flights are from Dubai (DXB) by Flydubai, from Muscat (MCT) by Oman Air and from Doha (DOH) by Qatar Airways (Oneworld).
International flights to Zanzibar
Zanzibar Airport (ZNZ) receives many international flights from three continents (Africa, Europe, Middle-East and Western Asia). Here is a list of countries with airports having direct flights to Zanzibar.
Ethiopia has flight connection with Zanzibar. Addis Ababa is the only city with direct flights offered by Ethiopian Airlines (Star Alliance). Both one-way and roundtrip flights are offered here. However, there is no any non-stop flight between Addis Ababa and Zanzibar. The stop of this flight is at Arusha (JRO). The cheapest one-way flight costs $477 taking about 7hours and 10 minutes. Ethiopian Air will take you to Arusha and Precision Air will finish the remaining route to Zanzibar. The best on-way flight costs $847 by Ethiopian Airlines and it takes 4 hours and 45 minutes. An average roundtrip flight to Zanzibar costs $984 each route taking 4 hours and 45 minutes.
Kenya; two cities have direct flights to Zanzibar, Nairobi (WIL) and (NBO) and Mombasa (MBA). A non-stop flight from Nairobi (NBO) costs $353 while a cheapest flight with one stop (usually Dar es Salaam and Arusha) costs $139. Best one-way flights cost to about $230 and the main operators are Precision Air, Kenya Airways and Air Tanzania. These flights take 1 hours and 40 minutes. Mombasa (MBA) has four airlines organizing flights to Zanzibar; Condor, Eurowings, Neos and Safarilink Aviation. A one-way flight costs $400 from Mombasa to Zanzibar.
South Africa. Johannesburg has direct flights offered seasonally (July-February). Best flight from Johannesburg (JNB) to Zanzibar costs $257 for Economy travelers and $775 for Business class. It takes about 7 hours and 55 minutes. This flight has one stop usually Nairobi (NBO) and it is offered by Kenya Airways and Precision Air.
Switzerland. A seasonal route (July-February) from Zurich to Zanzibar is organized by Edelweiss Air. This route has one stop that is Doha. It takes about 13 hours and 15 minutes costing to about $729 for economy-class and $3182 for business-class. Qatar Airways runs this flight.
Turkey. Istanbul has direct flights to Zanzibar and is offered by Turkish Airlines (Star Alliance). Qatar Airways organize this flight with their one stop at DOH. This flight costs $594 for economy-class and $1450 for business-class. Other airlines running this route are Egypt Air, Precision Air and Turkish Airlines.
United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi (AUH)and Dubai (DXB) are two airports in UAE with direct flights to Zanzibar. The flight from AUH is seasonal while the flight from DXB is year-round and is organized by Flydubai.
Non-stop flights from Dubai are offered by Flydubai. Their average cost is $240 for economy and $1336 for business class. They take about 5 hours and 40 minutes. Other airlines include Emirates, F and Kenya Airways.
Netherlands. A flight from Amsterdam (AMS) to Zanzibar has one stop (DOH). It is offered by Qatar Airways and it takes about 13 hours and 55 minutes. The costs of this flights are $667 and $2885 for economy and business classes respectively.
Oman. Direct flights from Muscat (MCT) are offered by Oman Air. Oman Air offers non-stop flights with a cost of $461 for economy class and $1794 for business class. It takes about 5 hours 25 minutes. Other airlines on this route are Qatar Airways and Emirates.
Qatar. Doha (DOH) is the only airport with direct non-stop flights to Zanzibar. These flights are organized by Qatar Airways (Oneworld). One-way flight from Doha to Zanzibar takes 6 hours and costs $441 for economy and $1697 for business class. Flydubai also offers this flight with a cost of $370. However, this flight takes longer time of 20 hours since you will stop at Dubai before resuming the flight to Zanzibar.

Local flights to Zanzibar.
Seven airports have direct flights to Zanzibar (ZNZ). These are Dar es Salaam (DAR) Arusha (ARK), Kilimanjaro (JRO), Pemba Island (PMA), Seronera (SEU), Grumeti (GTZ) and Tanga (TGT). Dar es Salaam, Arusha and Pemba Island are the popular routes to Zanzibar. They have many flights than any route. Three airlines that dominate the domestic flights are Coastal Aviation, Auric Air and Precision Air.
Dar es Salaam (DAR). Flights from DAR are always non-stop taking up to 30 minutes. Many airlines run this route with various price tags. Here is some of them with their duration and price tags in brackets; Precision Air (30min, $24), Air Tanzania (30min, $28), Regional (20m, $61), Auric Air (15m, $92) and many others.
Arusha (ARK). Most flights from Arusha takes about one hour to one hour and 30 minutes. The costs of these flights differ from one airline to another. Here is a list; Air Tanzania ($131), Air Excel ($110), Precision Air ($124), Coastal Aviation ($166) and Auric Air ($184).
Kilimanjaro (JRO). Flights from Kilimanjaro always takes about one hour. The average high cost is $130 while the cheap one is $90. Airlines running this route are Air Tanzania, Auric Air and Regional Air.
Pemba Island (PMA). This flight takes about 20 minutes and the cheapest flight costs $75 by As Salaam Air. Auric Air flight costs $112 for economy class.
Tanga (TGT). This non-stop flight takes about 45 minutes. The cost of this flight is $142 and it is offered by Auric Air.
Seronera (SEU). Non-stop flights are offered Regional Air ($506) and Coastal Aviation ($489) taking 2 to 3 hours. Since this route is for visitors, some routes have one stop (Arusha).
Grumeti (GTZ). This route takes about 4 hours and 45 minutes. Cheap flight costs $445 (with one stop, Arusha) while normal flights cost $560. Airlines running this route are Coastal Aviation, Regional Air, Air Tanzania and Air Excel.
Alternative airports. Dar es Salaam Airport (DAR) and Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO) are best alternative airports when you are from North America, Southern America, Central America and the Caribbean. These two receives direct flights from various locations which have no direct flights to Zanzibar.
A trip to Zanzibar is a magnificent one, since you will have no travel difficulties. This spice has close connection to the Arab world which offer non-stop flights to her airport, Kisauni Airport (ZNZ) with affordable prices. You have every reason to plan a trip