South African low-cost carrier FlySafair, announced a service to Zanzibar starting in April, its second scheduled flight outside South Africa after Mauritius. South Africa’s FlySafair spreads its wings.
Bookings for the route that starts April 8 with a same-day return, and will initially operate once a week, went live on March 13.
“South Africa’s favourite low-cost carrier is excited to announce the launch of their most recent regional route between O.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB) and Abeid Amani Karume International airport (ZNZ) in Zanzibar,” Chief Marketing Officer Kirby Gordon said in a statement.
The carrier operates a fleet of five 737-400s and 25 -800s. It says a second flight to operate on weekdays could be added to the schedule later. It also announced a third flight to Mauritius starting this month.
“Zanzibar is one of the most beautiful island destinations in Africa. This, along with the success we have seen flying to Mauritius and the demand for our chartered flights to Zanzibar, were key players in our decision to add this route to our schedule,” Kirby explained.
The carrier says the service to Zanzibar marks the beginning of a year of growth for the airline that plans to add more regional routes to the schedule, “along with more aircraft to their fleet in the coming months.”
Last October, the Air Services Licensing Council of South Africa approved the carrier’s application to operate flights to ten new destinations, including services from Cape Town and Johannesburg to Gaborone, Livingstone, Luanda, Lusaka, Maputo, and Victoria Falls. Others are Johannesburg to Bulawayo, Nairobi, Seychelles, and Cape Town to Windhoek. Given the ongoing weakness of the national carrier, South African Airways, allowing other national carriers access to international markets makes sense.
“After nearly three years of limited travel, South Africans are once again eager to spread their wings both locally and regionally. We are so thrilled to be able to grow our services to meet the needs of our consumers,” Kirby said.
Michael Wakabi
