With tourism booming worldwide, the thoughts of many curious travellers are turning to that most fascinating of continents: Africa. The sheer diversity of things to see is mind-boggling. From the Pyramids to the Angel Falls and then to Table Mountain sitting in the low cloud above Cape Town, from the spice laden restaurants of Addis to the seafood of Dakar, from the Berbers of the Sahara to the Sapeurs of Kinshasa. And who does not want to see for themselves the perfectly preserved Italian art deco of Asmara, that hidden city of Eritrea or the ruins of ancient Carthage outside Tunis? I will certainly never forget looking over the grasslands of Kenya and Tanzania with my legs dangling over a cliff half way up Kilimanjaro….
The magnificent city of Dakar
Yet with all but the most lucrative routes being crowded out of Heathrow, getting there has largely become a preserve of flying indirectly via Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Istanbul, or using Ethiopian’s excellent service via Addis to destinations all over the continent.
Yet there has been an interesting and increasing trickle of airlines and destinations that I remember from chlldhood popping up as routes not from Heathrow but Gatwick. The recent annoucement of Uganda Airlines that it has launched a four-times-weekly route between London Gatwick and the country’s central city of Entebbe is a great example. The route is only nonstop one between the UK and Uganda and was until 2015 flown by British Airways. Uganda Airlines is using a latest generation A330-800neo aircraft, configured with 20 seats in business class, 28 in premium economy and 210 in economy.
This will be followed in July by Kenya Airways’ which will run a service to Nairobi in July – again a service I used to take with British Airways many moons ago.
The table below shows what over routes are available:
Routes between Gatwick and Africa
| Destination | Airline | |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | ||
| Accra, Ghana | British Airways | |
| Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | Ethiopian Airways | |
| Mauritius | Air Mauritius, British Airways | |
| Entebbe, Uganda | Uganda Airlines | |
| Lagos, Nigeria | Air Peace | |
| North Africa | ||
| Agadir, Morocco | EasyJet, British Airways, TUI | |
| Algiers, Algeria | British Airways | |
| Casablanca, Morocco | Royal Air Maroc | |
| Hurghada, Egypt | EasyJet, TUI | |
| Enfidha, Tunisia | EasyJet, TUI | |
| Marrakech, Morocco | EasyJet, British Airways, TUI, Wizz Air | |
| Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt | EasyJet, British Airways, TUI | |
| Tangier, Morocco | Air Arabia | |
| Tunis, Tunisia | Nouvelair, Tunis Air | |
| Sal, Cape Verde | EasyJet, TUI | |
| Boa Vista, Cape Verde | TUI | |
So, first thing I would urge is be savvy and explore some of the more interesting corners of Africa before the Instagram hordes discover them (and they will, you know it) and second, think about taking a direct flight so that we can encourage some other airlines to give London and Gatwick a go!
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