MANGO is dipping a
toe in the waters of
a Lanseria-Zanzibar
route with one month of
Saturday morning flights.
Starting June 1, for six
consecutive Saturdays,
the airline will operate
flight JE972, departing
HLA at 09h50 and arriving
on the island at 14h15.
Flight JE973 will depart
ZNZ 15h05 and arrive HLA
18h05.
These flights connect
well with the arrival of the
Cape Town flights (JE702,
departing Cape Town for
Lanseria at 06h10), and
the Durban flights (JE612,
departing Durban for
Lanseria at 06h15). For
the return leg, flight JE719
departs HLA for Cape Town
at 19h20 and flight JE645
departs HLA for Durban also
at 19h20.
A spokesperson for Mango
said this was a scheduled
operation, and a route that
will be scheduled according
to seasonality, depending
on the uptake by South
African travellers. Asked if
it planned any more HLA
flights, the airline said
“good business practice”
would dictate the future.
Marian Sandu, ceo
of Holiday Packages by
AfricaStay told TNW: “From
my perspective, this is
an amazing opportunity
to increase traffic into
Zanzibar. Flying from
Lanseria is much easier
overall and Mango has
organised the scheduling
of the flight to connect
seamlessly with flights from
Cape Town and Durban on
the same day. This is a first
for flights into Zanzibar and
I hope Mango will consider
future flights from Lanseria
over high-demand periods
such as school holidays.”
Mango is still the only
SA carrier flying directly
to the island. It was
Marian who pioneered the
original Mango charter
flights to Zanzibar, placing
considerable investment
in the route and building
the traffic up to the critical
mass, at which point the
airline decided to put on the
regular scheduled Tuesday
and Thursday flights out of
ORTIA, which have become
so popular.
