This is FR number 3 of 6 from my trip to Tanzania and will cover my first domestic flight within the country flying from Zanzibar to Arusha via Pemba. This is a fairly popular route for tourists as both Zanzibar and Arusha are major tourist attractions in the country. Zanzibar is mainly known for its pristine white beaches and resorts while most tourists visit Arusha as a stopping point for Mount Kilimanjaro nearby. The national park gets its own airport, Kilimanjaro International Airport, which gets a lot more flights, especially from international destinations.
I actually chose this flight because it had a stopover in Pemba, which is the island north of Zanzibar. I really wanted to visit the island but sadly didn't have the time so this'll serve as a compromise, allowing me to have a quick look at the airport. As for price, I paid $75, which isn't too bad. And yes, that is USD. Their local currency (Tanzanian Shilling) is so weak most tourist hotspots calculate the price in Dollars, which they also accept. If you choose to pay in Shillings, they'd actually have to check (or ask me to check) the conversion rate, which was quite bizarre at first. Like surely you'd know the conversion rate for your own currency? Or does it just fluctuate so much every day? But anyway, if you're coming here, it's best to bring some USD in cash, although that's only applicable for people coming from the US.
I aim to offset all of my CO2 emission from flights. All emissions are calculated using the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator and I will be funding projects approved by The Gold Standard. The CO2 output for this flight is:
ZNZ → PMA → ARK : 102kg Total for 2024 (so far): 542kg
video report
Here's the video version of this FR, it's got pretty much the same thing content wise.
Zanzibar Abeid Amani Karume International Airport (ZNZ)
While Dar-es-Salaam has the largest airport in Tanzania, Zanzibar has the most flights from Europe consisting largely of seasonal flights from leisure airlines such as Edelweiss, Condor, Neos and Discover Airlines. I actually spent a day planespotting here in Zanzibar, which was by far the most interesting session I've ever had (although not because of the planes). I attached some photos from that in the tourism bonus below.
But anyway, here's the parking lot outside.
The airport has 2 terminals. All domestic flights depart from Terminal 2, which is the one pictured below. However, while the majority of international flights go from T3, T2 still accepts international flights for some reason, although passengers for international flights enter through another part of the terminal.
A ticket check is conducted at the entrance along with a security check, which consisted of 2 staff members, a metal detector and bag scanner. Pretty standard for an airport entrance… until you realize that it's the only security check in the airport. Yeah, there isn't one after check-in and since you also bring your checked bag through, there's basically no restrictions on what you can/can't bring.
Speaking of check-in, it was basically a room with 1 check-in desk and 2 staff members. Apologies for not having any photos of the room but I really didn't want to point a camera in front of the agent's face.
Anyway, here's the departures lounge. The check-in room is on the right (basically separated by a door and a pane of glass) with a very temporary looking toilet in a corner and a gift shop in the other.
Another photo of the area. There's also a coffee shop. I guess the area on the other side of the glass is the baggage reclaim area? I'm not too sure but yeah, this place is tiny.
Pretty soon, it was time to board.
View of the tarmac on the bus. You can see an Auric Air Cessna 208 Caravan and an Ethiopian Boeing 787-8. It's one of Zanzibar's very few wide bodies and it will be heading onward to Moroni (in Comoros) after arriving from Addis Ababa (ADD).
the flight
And here's our plane:
Some info about our plane:
Like most domestic flights in Tanzania, there are no data on the flight on Flightradar24. Which means no routing and no aircraft information. There's 2 Dash 8s in Auric Air's fleet (according to planespotter.net), I'm 60% sure it's the -200 although it could be the -100 (they look the same, especially from up close!)
Type: De Havilland Canada DHC-8-200 (maybe…) Registration: 5H-MHN (if it's the -200) First flight: No clue Age: ~27 years Config: No clue (all economy… a small number of seats)
Being a 27 year old plane, she had a looong history before joining Auric Air. She flew with: Piedmont Air, US Airways Express, Aires, and LAN Colombia before joining leasing group Avmax Aviation before finally joining Auric Air's fleet in June 2023. In case anyone's interested, she had 5 different registrations before her current Tanzanian one.
The seats on this very old plane.
It's worth noting that there are no assigned seating on this flight. On my boarding pass it just says 'any' under seat. The -200 (or -100…) is one of the worst planes to film out of as 90% of the windows are completely obstructed by the engine. I luckily got on early enough to get a seat in front (3A) so you can see at least some of the scenery…
… except the windows are absolutely filthy. Still, I'll try my best.
I mean… do we really care about the legroom on this? It's pretty much the same on all Dash 8s.
Also, is this an ashtray?!
It's now used to store random junk but I'm quite sure it's an ashtray (unless anyone knows otherwise?)
Takeoff with views of the apron (including the Ethiopian 787).
View of Stone Town, the main city in Zanzibar.
About 20 minutes later, we landed in Pemba. Around 80% of the passengers got off with only about 5 other people remaining onboard. I took this opportunity to move to a better seat on the other side of the plane (2D), although it's still filthy.
Interesting that there's French on the seats although that's probably because she was built in Canada.
Around 10 minutes later, we're off to Arusha. Flight time from Pemba to Arusha is around 1 hour.
Midway through the flight, the only crew member came around and gave us a bottle of water…
… and some cashew nuts. Pretty nice.
Lets have a look at the contents of the seatback pocket, which includes:
- An air sickness bag.
- A pretty worn safety card (just a laminated piece of paper).
- And a tourist brochure of Tanzania. It's not really an inflight magazine…
… instead it just lists out the tourist destinations and what to do in each.
Pretty soon we started out descent into Arusha. Now, it's a common complaint on long haul flights that the crew would 'disappear' after meal service. In this flight, the only crew member quite literally disappeared… to the back of the plane. There were no descent announcement, safety checks or anything. He just came out, gave us all some water and a snack and went to the back until we parked. Usually, the crew should sit in the jumpseat at the front, but I guess that's not a requirement?
You can (kinda?) see Mount Meru in the distance. It's the little 'hill' perfectly hidden by the clouds and the propeller blade in the distance.
On final approach to the airport.
arusha airport (ark)
Welcome to Arusha! I did take some photos of the landing/taxi on the plane but since they just let us walk around the tarmac these photos are much better.
Yes, that's the taxiway right in front of us and the runway ahead. It's pretty bizarre to be allowed to walk around here (at least in the vicinity of the plane) while they got our luggage out.
And here's a very nice photo of our plane to end. I'm still debating whether it's a -100 or -200 as I write this haha. There's no way to tell the registration either, although that's easy once you know the type.
And that's the departures area. No, really. It's a tent on the side of the tarmac and I saw people walking up to the grass to take photos of the plane when we arrived. There's some restaurants or something there so you can eat lunch and have the best planespotting views ever while you wait.
Walking to arrivals past some more Cessna 208 Caravans. These are very, very common here.
By "arrivals" I literally mean a hut with a few seats in the parking lot. Hilariously, despite there being only 5 of us, they still made us wait 3 minutes for our luggage as the staff had to put it on a trolley and roll it out to us (we literally could've saved all that trouble and collected it by the plane haha).
As usual for Tanzania, I got swarmed by like 5 taxi drivers waiting outside, which basically made taking photos impossible as they just won't leave me alone…
I'll leave this FR here. I'm only spending a day here before heading back to Dar-es-Salaam (on a bus… yes I'm crazy), where I'll catch my next domestic flight to an even less tourist-y place. As promised, a planespotting bonus from Zanzibar is attached below. Thanks for reading and see you there!
Bonus : Click here display hide
Considering all the rare and amazing planes flying around in Tanzania, I knew I had to squeeze in a planespotting session here. As previously mentioned, 90% of domestic flights in Tanzania aren't on Flightradar24, which meant that I only had a 30 second warning whenever a plane was arriving (which was 1 every 20 mins on average). It made it absolutely exhausting as I had to be on alert the entire time. I did miss a few Cessnas because of it but I'm still very happy with how it came out.
One of the reasons why I love planespotting (along with the planes) is that it very often leads me to very random places, from industrial estates in Canada to a forest in Norway. This time I ended up in a random road which had 5 houses and some fields. Obviously, being a foreigner, I was expecting some attention from the locals nearby. What I wasn't expecting, however, was how open they (especially the kids) welcomed me into their neighborhood. While they only spoke limited English, it was amazing to learn about their life here and to share my stories about life in the UK (which included a chocolate bar I bought with me). It turned a rather average (and sometimes, dull) planespotting session into a fascinating cultural exchange, resulting in a truly unique experience which I'll never forget.
See more
Verdict
Auric Air
6.9/10
Cabin7.0
Cabin crew4.5
Entertainment/wifi7.0
Meal/catering9.0
Zanzibar - ZNZ
8.5/10
Efficiency10.0
Access8.0
Services9.0
Cleanliness7.0
Arusha - ARK
10.0/10
Efficiency10.0
Access10.0
Services10.0
Cleanliness10.0
Conclusion
A nice flight with Auric Air. The cabin's a standard Dash 8 cabin however getting a bottle of water and some snacks for a 1 hour flight isn't too bad. The only crew member literally disappeared for like 95% of the flight (including during descent and landing) with no announcement but at least we made it from A to B on time.
Zanzibar Abeid Amani Karume International Airport (ZNZ) - A very basic airport with everything you'll need (souvenir and coffee shop, toilet) and the staff members are all very nice and friendly.
Arusha Airport (ARK) - Let's see.... what are the requirements of a functioning airport? Runway? Check. Apron? Check. A building (or tent)? Check. Okay, 10/10.
9 LIKESLIKE TO THANK THE AUTHORTHANKS ! FLIGHT-REPORT LIKED
This is such a cool flight report!!! It brought back childhood memories so thank you for sharing! Love the bonus at the end since sometimes the most random occurrences turn out to be the most beautiful.
Always with the exotic flights and routings, love it! I'm sure it's perfectly safe, but man that cabin has seen better days and is clearly original and unchanged...yup ash tray gives it away. Also I have dirty, scratched up windows since I love taking pics out of windows. Turboprops are notorious for having scratched up windows because of all the dust and particles thrown at the fuselage by the propellers, but damn, you can barely see out that window at all!
Yeah, that plane almost certainly drove over a few too many of muddy puddles haha. It's always fun flying an old plane, at 27 years it's one of the oldest I've been on. Thanks for reading!
Fascinating review!! These old African planes always feel so exotic - what an adventure for you to fly on them! The closest I ever got to any local African aircraft was seeing a Precision Air ATR42 taking off from Arusha while driving by haha… this brings back the memories! And I definitely agree on the part about how the locals generally are so open and welcoming, especially the kids! They always wave and smile at you when they see you, and that’s so down to earth - you can’t find that in any of the more developed places in Europe and America anymore. Sharing cultures and learning more about the lives of different people is always so beautiful! Thanks a lot for sharing!
It is an adventure to fly around in Africa. It's so much more relaxed and informal compared to flying from big airports in Europe.
The closest I ever got to any local African aircraft was seeing a Precision Air ATR42 taking off
That's the next flight I went on haha!
They always wave and smile at you when they see you, and that’s so down to earth
That's so true. It's so hard to get used to at first, especially if you're used to being invisible in a big city (like me). I thought it was because I was a foreigner at first until I was following a local tour guide and he was just chatting and laughing with random strangers on the road. It's awesome.
Excellent report again, many thanks for sharing! Good idea to stop over in Pemba. Apparently, this route in this direction for most airlines isn't as lucrative as the other way round (ARK-(PMA)-ZNZ). Tourists always prefer to end their holidays in Zanzibar after a safari or/and a hike. That may explain the attractive deal you got! Why do you have different ratings here for crew and cabin than in your video? Looking forward to the rest
Hi East African. Yeah, ARK-ZNZ being more popular makes sense, although this route in particular (ZNZ-PMA-ARK) is the least popular of them all as most people just fly direct. The flight was full to PMA but basically empty for the rest of the trip to ARK.
Why do you have different ratings here for crew and cabin than in your video?
Honestly? I write these FRs weeks (or months) before editing the videos (a FR takes an hour whereas a video takes 3 days!) So I can't remember what I gave on here. I know its very easy to check but I'm just tired (especially when it's the end). As long as it's close enough it'll do haha.
Thanks a lot for the logic explanation! I've never thought that editing a video was very time consuming. Hence, kudos to you to often post both ??????.
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11 Comments
Love the planespotting bonus as always!
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for reading!
That's the next flight I went on haha!
That's so true. It's so hard to get used to at first, especially if you're used to being invisible in a big city (like me). I thought it was because I was a foreigner at first until I was following a local tour guide and he was just chatting and laughing with random strangers on the road. It's awesome.
Thanks for reading!
Good idea to stop over in Pemba. Apparently, this route in this direction for most airlines isn't as lucrative as the other way round (ARK-(PMA)-ZNZ). Tourists always prefer to end their holidays in Zanzibar after a safari or/and a hike. That may explain the attractive deal you got!
Why do you have different ratings here for crew and cabin than in your video?
Looking forward to the rest
Honestly? I write these FRs weeks (or months) before editing the videos (a FR takes an hour whereas a video takes 3 days!) So I can't remember what I gave on here. I know its very easy to check but I'm just tired (especially when it's the end). As long as it's close enough it'll do haha.
Thanks for reading!
I've never thought that editing a video was very time consuming. Hence, kudos to you to often post both ??????.
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