Zanzibar Travel Guide
Flights to Zanzibar
The short answer
Fly into Zanzibar (ZNZ). The gate is 1h15–1h30 away, and we meet you.
| Airport | Abeid Amani Karume (ZNZ) |
| Transfer | 1h15–1h30, tarmac all the way |
| Widest choice | Gulf carriers · one stop from most of Europe |
| Direct seasonal | Neos (Italy) · Edelweiss (Zurich) |
| Book flights | Jul–Sep + festive: 3–6 months ahead |
| Last verified | August 2026 |
Zanzibar's airport is Abeid Amani Karume International (ZNZ), on the west side of the island outside Stone Town. From the arrivals hall to our gate is 1h15 to 1h30 by road, and your butler helps you arrange the drive with the local agencies and drivers we work with: the butler holds your flight number, and the driver waits when the flight does not cooperate.
The table below is checked by hand, row by row, against each airline's own timetable — not pulled from an aviation feed. We tried the feed first and it lied by omission: it reports flight sectors, so Condor's Frankfurt service appeared under Mombasa, the city it continues to after Zanzibar. Where a source could not be confirmed we say so underneath rather than quietly dropping the route, and where an airline does not serve Zanzibar at all — Emirates flies to Dar es Salaam, not here — we say that too.
Who flies into Zanzibar
Flying in from
| From | Airline | Frequency | Season |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frankfurt FRA | Condor Zanzibar is the first landing; the aircraft continues to Mombasa afterwards. | 3–4× a week | year-round (3 weekly in winter) |
| Frankfurt FRA | Discover Airlines · may stop in Mombasa Lufthansa Group. Sources disagree on whether the current season is nonstop or via Mombasa — ask the airline when booking. | 2–3× a week | summer-weighted |
| Amsterdam AMS | KLM Boeing 787 on KLM's own metal, about 8h40. | several a week | year-round |
| Amsterdam AMS | TUI fly Netherlands A winter-sun charter, Dutch TUI — not the German one. | weekly | winter |
| Istanbul IST | Turkish Airlines About 7h20, and the widest one-stop net over Europe. | 5–6× a week | year-round |
| Zurich ZRH | Edelweiss Air | weekly | long season, Jul–Mar |
| Milan MXP | Neos · nonstop, plus a weekly service via Kilimanjaro Neos added a Milan–Kilimanjaro–Zanzibar rotation in July 2026 alongside the direct one. | 2× a week | seasonal |
| Warsaw WAW | Enter Air A charter; some rotations are flown by Neos. | weekly, Wed | winter only, 4 Nov 2026 – 24 Mar 2027 |
| Madrid MAD | World2Fly | weekly | summer charter |
| Dubai DXB | flydubai About 5h20 — the densest hub connection to this airport. | 3× a day | year-round |
| Doha DOH | Qatar Airways | near-daily | year-round, relaunched June 2026 |
| Abu Dhabi AUH | Etihad Airways A short seasonal window — check the dates before planning around it. | 4× a week | summer only, 14 Jun – 6 Sep 2026 |
| Addis Ababa ADD | Ethiopian Airlines About 2h45; often the shortest total journey from central Europe. | 5× a week | year-round |
| Nairobi NBO | Kenya Airways About 1h20. | several a day | year-round |
| Kigali KGL | RwandAir Zanzibar first, then onward to Mombasa. | 4× a week | year-round since Dec 2025 |
| Cairo CAI | EgyptAir | 2× a week | from 4 Sep 2026, extended into winter |
| Johannesburg JNB | Airlink · FlySafair Airlink added Johannesburg in June 2026 and Cape Town from 3 October 2026. | 5× a week | year-round |
| Entebbe EBB | Uganda Airlines | 2–3× a week | year-round |
| Moscow VKO | Air Tanzania | 3× a week | year-round since 2 Jul 2026 |
Not confirmed this month
Does not serve Zanzibar
Within Tanzania and the region
| From | How often |
|---|---|
| Dar es Salaam DAR | 35× a day |
| Arusha ARK | 17× a day |
| Pemba PMA | 7× a day |
| Tanga TGT | 3× a day |
| Seronera (Serengeti) SEU | 2× a day |
| Kilimanjaro JRO | 2× a day |
Average frequency over the last month of recorded traffic — seasonal services come and go. Route data: AeroDataBox, updated September 2026.
Getting from the aircraft to the beach
Arrival is straightforward and slower than you expect, in the way island arrivals are. Visas are issued on arrival for most nationalities or in advance online; the queue is the longest part of the day. Your driver is past customs with your name, the car is air-conditioned, and the road crosses the island through spice country and the edge of the Jozani forest before it reaches the east coast. Most guests arrive at Matlai with a coconut in hand within two hours of landing.
Flying home is easier: the road empties in the middle of the day, and we time the departure so you are not sitting in the terminal for hours. Late check-out is available in both houses if your flight is an evening one — the policies page lists what it costs, by villa, without an asterisk.
The short hops that make a trip work
Half of Zanzibar's traffic never leaves Tanzania, and those flights are the ones that solve awkward itineraries. Dar es Salaam is the busiest by a distance — dozens of crossings a day, twenty minutes in the air — so a delayed intercontinental arrival into the mainland rarely costs you the day. Arusha and Kilimanjaro are the northern safari gateways and both connect here directly, which is why the beach-after-safari order works so smoothly. Seronera, the airstrip in the middle of the Serengeti, has a scheduled service: it is genuinely possible to watch the plains at dawn and swim on this coast the same afternoon. Pemba — the greener, quieter sister island — is a short hop for anyone extending, and Tanga connects the northern mainland coast.
These are small aircraft on published schedules rather than charters, and luggage limits are real: most operators allow 15 kg in soft bags, and safari camps expect the same. Pack for the aeroplane, not for the airline you flew in on — the excess is usually charged at the airstrip, in cash, by someone who has heard every argument before.
If the flight is late
Delays are normal here and we plan for them rather than react. Your butler holds the flight number, watches the arrival, and the driver from our partner agency waits — a late landing does not mean a lost car or a lost afternoon. If a connection is missed entirely, tell us as early as you can and the transfer moves with you; the only thing we cannot move is the sunset you were hoping to arrive for. Going home, the road is emptiest in the middle of the day, and we time the departure so the wait happens on a terrace rather than in a terminal.
Combining Zanzibar with a safari
Most guests who combine the two do the safari first and the beach second, and they are right to: the Serengeti is early mornings and long drives, and the island is the part where nobody wakes you. Arusha and Kilimanjaro both connect to Zanzibar directly, and the Seronera airstrip in the middle of the Serengeti has a scheduled hop — you can be at breakfast in a tented camp and in the sea by late afternoon. Our safari guide covers the itinerary side of it honestly, including what we do not organise ourselves.
Good to know
Questions travellers ask
Which airlines fly to Zanzibar?
From Germany, Condor flies Frankfurt to Zanzibar nonstop, three to four times a week and all year — Zanzibar is the first landing, and the aircraft continues to Mombasa afterwards. Discover Airlines also serves Frankfurt two to three times a week in the summer season, though sources disagree on whether that flight stops in Mombasa on the way, so ask when you book. KLM flies Amsterdam nonstop year-round, Turkish Airlines flies Istanbul five to six times a week, Edelweiss flies Zurich weekly through a long season, Neos flies Milan, Enter Air flies Warsaw on Wednesdays in winter only, and World2Fly flies Madrid in summer. From the Gulf: flydubai up to three times a day from Dubai, Qatar Airways from Doha again since June 2026, and Etihad from Abu Dhabi in a short summer window. From Africa: Ethiopian, Kenya Airways, RwandAir, EgyptAir from September 2026, Airlink and FlySafair from South Africa, and Uganda Airlines. Two corrections worth having: Emirates does not fly here at all — it serves Dar es Salaam — and TUI's Zanzibar flights leave from Amsterdam, not Germany.
Is it better to fly into Zanzibar or Dar es Salaam?
Fly into Zanzibar if you can. ZNZ is a 1h15–1h30 drive from Matlai and your butler meets you in the arrivals hall. Dar es Salaam adds either a 20-minute hop to Zanzibar or a ferry plus a road transfer — worth it only if the fare difference is large or you are combining with a mainland safari that starts there.
How long is the transfer from the airport?
1h15 to 1h30 across the island to Michamvi Pingwe, on tarmac the whole way. Your butler helps you arrange it with the local agencies and drivers we work with, so the driver knows your flight number and waits if you are late. The road crosses the middle of the island — spice farms, villages, the Jozani forest edge — and most guests find it is the moment the holiday starts rather than a chore.
Which European connections work best?
If you want to land without changing planes, Frankfurt with Condor is the most dependable — three to four a week, right through the year. Zurich with Edelweiss, Milan with Neos and Amsterdam with KLM are the other direct European options, and Warsaw with Enter Air runs Wednesdays between November and March. Otherwise one stop through a hub is usually quicker than hunting for a direct: Istanbul with Turkish, Doha with Qatar Airways, Dubai with flydubai, or Addis Ababa with Ethiopian, which is often the shortest total journey from central Europe. Roughly half of Europe's services here are seasonal charters, so check the season before you fix your dates rather than after.
How far in advance should I book flights?
For July–September and the festive weeks, three to six months: those are the seats that sell, not the rooms. March to May is the opposite — fares soften with the long rains and you can book far later. If your dates are fixed by school holidays, secure the flight first and let us hold the room while you do.
Is there a departure tax or an insurance requirement?
Tanzanian departure taxes are normally included in your ticket. Zanzibar has introduced a mandatory tourist insurance requirement, and the detail has changed more than once since it appeared — we deliberately do not print a figure here that might be out of date. Ask us when you book and we will tell you what is current on the day, in writing.