South African regional and domestic airline Airlink has announced that it is to introduce the first-ever direct flight between Cape Town and Zanzibar. The service will launch in October, and will follow the start of the carrier’s Johannesburg-Zanzibar service, scheduled for June 3. The Cape Town-Zanzibar route will be operated by the airline’s new flagship airliner, the Embraer E195-E2.

“The introduction of our new flagship aircraft, the E195-E2, with its innovative business class and comfortable economy seats, enables Airlink to bring destinations such as Zanzibar within convenient non-stop reach of Cape Town, which is an important source market for travel to the island,” highlighted Airlink CEO de Villiers Engelbrecht. “Cape Town is also our second hub and a popular connecting point for long-haul, regional and local customers travelling with Airlink or any of our partner airlines from around the world.”

Airlink’s E195-E2s are configured in two classes, with a total passenger capacity of 124. All these seats are either aisle or window seats.

Customers who have already booked Cape Town-Johannesburg-Zanzibar flights dated from October and afterwards will be able to switch to the direct flight, at no extra cost, “provided it’s in the same cabin”. This can be done via Airlink Reservations (for bookings made on the Airlink website) or travel agencies.

The new flights will be operated on Saturdays and have a duration of six hours, each way. The Cape Town-Zanzibar flight will be coded 4Z 356 and leave at 08h15, arriving in Zanzibar at 14h30, local time. The return flight will be coded 4Z 357 and depart Zanzibar at 15h30 and reach Cape Town at 20h50 – again, local time. (Zanzibar time is one hour ahead of South African time.)

“Besides its increasing popularity as a tourist destination, Zanzibar’s flourishing economy – driven by agriculture, manufacturing, marine services as well as offshore oil and gas exploration – is also seeing it emerge as a magnet for investors and business travellers,” pointed out Airlink. “Zanzibar’s adoption of an efficient new online electronic visa application system and the alternative option of obtaining visas on arrival, is also contributing to Zanzibar’s popularity.”