Review of Auric Air flight from Zanzibar to Arusha in Economy

Maybe, maybe, maybe…

Hey guys and welcome to another Flight Report!

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!