The news of Mango’s two flights a week to the island paradise of Zanzibar has come just in time, when South Africans’ thoughts are turning to their Christmas holiday.
The airline’s announcement of a direct service, means a quick and easy flight, making it one of the easiest overseas beach holiday destinations for South Africans to travel to, with no restrictive travel requirements in place to enter the island.
Mango HOD: marketing and communications, Benediction Zubane, confirmed that the carrier would resume its flights between OR Tambo and Zanzibar on November 28. According to the flight details on Mango’s website, JE926 will depart from Johannesburg at 07h00, arriving in Zanzibar at 11h35 on Tuesdays and Saturdays. JE927 will depart from Zanzibar at 13h05, arriving in Johannesburg at 15h50.
“Going to Zanzibar there are no travel restrictions, however when passengers return to South Africa they are required to have a PCR test with them that is not more than 72 hours old,” said Benediction.
Ceo of Thompsons Holidays, Joanne Adolphe, told Travel News that it was focusing on the promotion of Zanzibar and Seychelles for the December holiday period at a time when the fluidity of COVID-19 restrictions made travel to so many other destinations quite prohibitive.
She said many of the hotels in Zanzibar were making arrangements for a nurse to visit guests at the resort to conveniently do their PCR tests. Where tests were not being done in a particular resort, the DMC would arrange a transfer for the guests to a hospital or testing facility, said Joanne. She added that there had been no issues with late delivery of test results.
Jacqui Carr, product manager of AfricaStay, said it was great news that Zanzibar was open for South African travellers and the reinstatement of Mango’s direct service would make the destination easier to reach. She commented that there were great specials available at the moment and that all the resorts that AfricaStay promoted could arrange PCR testing in-house.
Sales director of The Holiday Factory, Matthew Fubbs, said the testing cost between USD100 (R1 630) and USD120 (R1 959) per test on average.
Matthew’s advice to the trade was to start sealing deals by promoting destinations that South Africans could actually travel to right now. The Holiday Factory has seen a pick-up in enquiries for Zanzibar and it was attracting not only budget holidaymakers but also upmarket clients.
He concurred that the news of Mango’s timely reintroduction of flights was great news, but added that the island was also easy to reach with Kenya Airways.
