AUH to ZNZ
 

Please forgive me if this is not the appropriate forum, I'm new here, and it's just a one-off question.

I'm reading a book in which the author gets on a flight (in or about 2005) from Abu Dhabi to Zanzibar that stopped at Bahrain, Muscat and Kampala on the way. I find this hard to believe - particularly since I was living in Zanzibar at the time and would have thought I would have heard of it. Does anyone have any knowledge of such a routing? I can only think of an airline like African Express, or some such - but they would presumably also have stopped somewhere in Somalia.

Thanks!

Iain.

A lot of zig-zagging for 2005, if much earlier could possibly be a GF routing(?), although even that is stretching credibility! Would love know if I'm wrong.

Sounds very much like "artistic licence". If not, would love to know what the author was on and if I can have some.

Gulf Air, which was still centred on and owned by these three Gulf locations in 2005, did serve served East Africa, to these two lesser points, along with Dar es Salaam, Nairobi and Kilimanjaro as well. A320 territory for them, and I think they took a lot of connecting traffic from Europe. Their network has of course somewhat shrunk since. And although many of their flights served two or three Gulf points before going onwards, there was no backtracking, if the order is correct. They were headquartered in Bahrain, registered their aircraft in Muscat, and had maintenance facilities in Abu Dhabi.. It all finally fell apart and they retreated to just Bahrain as a base in the couple of years that followed. Their MD Hogan left to start Etihad in 2006, and then Oman decided to do their own thing at Muscat as well in 2007, all having seen what Emirates had done. The maintenance in Abu Dhabi was sold off as well and became Gamco. It was one of the last places where you could get a Tristar serviced, with their skills from the old Gulf Air fleet.

Indeed. Gulf Air is possible - I can't find a timetable for that period. But I'm still a little dubious.

Confirmed: it would be Gulf Air. Because of historic connections between Oman and Zanzibar, Gulf Air flights to Zanzibar always flew out of Oman. So, one short-haul GF flight AUH to BAH, then change aircraft, with a long-haul flight to Zanzibar with one stop at MCT and another at KLA

Except I don't think Gulf Air flew to Zanzibar in 2005. Not 100% sure since I always flew Emirates out of Dar, but there weren't many airlines serving ZNZ (Oman Air for a while, and a couple of Italian charters). If they had I would probably have tried them, it would have saved flying over to Dar.
Does anyone have a timetable?