How does a fly in safari journey work in East Africa?
Shuttle flights into the wild
In most of Sinclair’s Africa destinations, there is the option of connecting individual regions and highlights with shuttle flights and travelling directly to them. This not only saves you time on transfers but also gives you a bird’s eye view of the country.
Many exclusive lodges have their own airstrip or a local airstrip nearby, from where a short land transfer is possible. The light aircraft are usually 6- to 12-seater planes that are used by the lodge groups or local shuttle flight providers. It goes without saying that we only select reliable and safe partners.
The aircraft can be booked for travellers on an exclusive basis or on many routes on a seat-in basis, which can result in stopovers (also for refuelling).
WEIGHT & LUGGAGE INSTRUCTIONS
Only soft cases or duffle bags are permitted – without frames or rigid structures. Hard cases do not fit into the small storage space of the aircraft and must be left behind.
Light aircraft (like all aircraft) have a limited load capacity (maximum take-off weight). The weight of the travellers is just as important as the weight of the entire luggage (including hand luggage and camera bags).
I therefore have to ask for your weight at the time of booking and pass it on to the shuttle flight operator in advance for planning the flight and seat occupancy. This also results in a restricted baggage limit (usually 20 kg per person). I can book additional baggage for you in advance. However, the surcharge is often the price of an additional seat.
FLIGHT TIMES
Flight times can only be given if a single charter flight is booked. Shuttle flight operators will consider requests for flight times and attempt to fulfil them, but they are not guaranteed under any circumstances. This is due to the complexities of managing efficient daily flights in conjunction with international flight times in & out of Africa.