Russian leisure airlines expand to Zanzibar

Royal Flight, Nordwind Airlines, Azur Air, and UTair have announced new scheduled or scheduled charter flights to Zanzibar as they seek to capitalise on low travel restrictions in Tanzania, the ch-aviation schedules module shows. Royal Flight plans to operate scheduled charters to the Tanzanian island from Kazan Int’l, Krasnoyarsk Yemelyanovo, Moscow Sheremetyevo, Novosibirsk, Rostov Platov, Samara Kurumoch, and St. Petersburg, all of them using B767-300(ER) widebodies. In turn, Nordwind Airlines plans to fly exclusively from Sheremetyevo using B777-200(ER)s while Azur Air will operate from Kazan, Novosibirsk, Rostov, St. Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk, and Ufa, using B767-300(ER)s. It also briefly flew from Samara but will suspend this route by the end of November. Finally, UTair intends to operate from Moscow Vnukovo using B767-200(ER)s. While Royal Flight, Nordwind Airlines, and Azur Air are focused on the leisure market, including long-haul services, flights to Zanzibar are a novelty for UTair. The carrier’s primary business is scheduled domestic flights with leisure routes restricted to short- and medium-haul routes. Its only three widebody aircraft, all B767-200(ER)s, are currently deployed on scheduled domestic routes, predominantly out of Vnukovo to Adler/Sochi and Anadyr. Tanzania, including Zanzibar, does not impose any travel restrictions on arriving passengers other than the requirement to fill out a form. No COVID tests or quarantine are required. The African country was among the first where the Russian authorities permitted to travel to in summer 2020.