British Airways is putting Tanzania on its route map for the first time, with two new East African destinations launching from London Gatwick in May 2027. The routing is a neat one: aircraft fly three times a week from Gatwick, land first at Kilimanjaro, then continue on to Zanzibar — so safari-goers and beach lovers can combine both in a single trip without touching another airline.
The service starts on 29 May 2027 and runs through to 31 October, which lines up neatly with UK school holidays and the peak safari season. Return fares begin at £849 including taxes and fees, with hand baggage in the base price.
What you get at each end is serious. Kilimanjaro Airport is the jumping-off point for Tanzania's Northern Safari Circuit: the Serengeti and the Great Migration, the Big 5 in UNESCO-listed Ngorongoro Crater, Tarangire's big elephant herds and Lake Manyara. It's also the base for anyone tackling Mount Kilimanjaro itself, whose slopes pass through five climate zones before hitting that snow-capped summit.
Zanzibar is the wind-down half. Expect white-sand beaches, coral reefs for diving and snorkelling, spice plantation tours, and the atmospheric, UNESCO-listed streets of Stone Town — the archipelago's historic heart on the Indian Ocean.
The Tanzania announcement sits inside a bigger summer 2027 network expansion starting from late March 2027. Buenos Aires moves to a daily non-stop from London — the only non-stop on that route — with an onward tag to Santiago, Chile. Rio de Janeiro gets extra seats as a dedicated daily route, San José in Costa Rica becomes year-round at three flights a week, Cape Town jumps from seven to ten flights a week, and Las Vegas gains a daily frequency. Gatwick's new Barbados route (launching this October) continues into summer 2027 with onward connections to Grenada, Guyana and Tobago, while St Lucia stays direct at four times a week. BA is also launching Gatwick–Colombo on 23 October and Heathrow–Melbourne via Kuala Lumpur on 9 January.
For travellers, this is the practical headline: a direct UK link to one of Africa's most coveted combinations — big-game country plus Indian Ocean beach — on a single ticket with a single carrier. The spur-and-continue structure means you can book either as a stopover or do the full bush-to-beach itinerary in one go. Fares from £849 put it in reach well ahead of a typical two-centre East Africa trip, and the May-to-October window covers the driest, most reliable months for wildlife viewing in the Serengeti, followed by Zanzibar's coast.
If you've been sitting on a migration trip or a Kilimanjaro climb because the flights felt like too much of a squeeze, this is worth watching when bookings open.
