Flying from Iringa to Dar es Salaam

Boarding the plane in Iringa

 

There is currently only one airline servicing Iringa to Dar es Salaam and it's a small 13 seat plane that flies only once per day. The low demand and low volume of seats results in a relatively high ticket price. To put in relative terms, the bus ride from Iringa to Dar es Salaam takes 10-12 hours and costs 28,000 tsh ($11) and the flight costs 556,000 tsh ($222), literally 20 times the price of the bus. This has not stopped the volume of passengers to increase as the flights were previously only offered 2 or 3 times a week and on some days there are even two flights. 

The service is relatively reliable and for those that can afford it, a massive savings of time. The Iringa airport is very close to town and it only takes about an hour and twenty minutes to reach Dar es Salaam. However, sometimes the airline company makes stops in smaller airstrips along the way. Passengers are not alerted until they arrive at the airport. The most common stop is Ifakara, a sleepy airstrip that services a massive sugar cane plantation. This only adds a half hour or so to the journey but in the rainy season the dirty airstrip can be harrowing. I've also had a stop in the much further town of Songea which added an additional hour or so but I believe it is relatively rare. Still, if one has a very short connection time or needs the flight to be punctual, I highly recommend calling the office the day before the flight to ensure there are not additional stops. 

The views on the flight are beautiful, especially in the area surrounding Iringa. There is some nice topography that can be admired from above with clouds hugging the tall hills and rivers carving out the landscape. A fair amount of the flight is spent at lower altitudes and thus if it's not too cloud you can get some exclusive views over some still wild areas of Tanzania.

Beautiful views coming into Iringa

Airstrip in Ifakara

Southern highlands