Arusha to Zanzibar flights?
 

Hi folks,

First time on this website. We are lookign to travel from Arusha to Zanzibar in July after our kili+safari trip. Trying to figure out which airlines to book the flight with
There seems to be 4 airlines for the morning flight that I am interested in
- precision air - available
- air tanzania - available
- coastal aviation - they are kind of expensive with only one flight in the day at 1pm
- flightlink - they are sold out for the mornign flight that we are interested in

Do I have any other choice? From above it seems choice is between precision air and air tanzania with Air TZ being cheaper. What would you recommend?
Mostly looking at direct flights. I also looked at JRO to Zanzibar but there seems to be more options from Arusha

thanks
was

Perhaps Zanair or Tropical Air fly this route also?
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in order of preference, I would definitely opt for AirTanzania first and Precision second. I have flown with both multiple times and also used the other minor airlines and the above is my preference going forward

I flew Coastal Air in December 2024 and they were fine (Grumeti to Zanzibar via Arusha - it involved a change of plane and transit at Arusha). My schedule from Grumeti to Zanzibar was brought forward but Arusha to Zanzibar flight was broadly on time. Beware that most of the carriers do not operate strictly to schedule, your flight times are not really confirmed until 24 hours prior to departure.

I would hazard a guess that carriers are probably more likely to be on schedule out of Arusha given it is a larger airport and a hub for lodge transfers, but I would recommend checking with your lodge whom they recommend and booking through your lodge so that they are informed of the actual departure time from your lodge and can cater accordingly. Also, being a bigger airline, Air Tanzania probably have to operate more strictly to schedule than others.

My lodge (andBeyond) had an arrangement with Coastal so I just went with them as per their recommendation - I did not choose them for any other reason. Others have probably got more experience, as per post above!

Remember to pre-purchase your mandatory Zanzibar travel insurance (it's a complete racket and worthless, but they do check and refuse entry at the Zanzibar border if you don't have the insurance in place). To be fair, you can buy it on arrival but internet can be patchy even on an eSIM and you don't want to be stuck in that hot box for any longer than necessary!

Sorry for looking at this a bit late, but you can also fly to Kilimanjaro airport which is really close-by to Arusha, and you will have many more options (Turkish, Ethiopian, Edelweiss etc)

The OP wrote that they checked flights from Kilimanjaro airport (JRO) to Zanzibar and that there were fewer options.My hunch is that the foreign carriers are not permitted to carry passengers on domestic flights in Tanzania.

This is definitely the case, they may do stop
overs to load more passengers or to drop them off from their international destinations but you could not book it as an “internal flight”.