Travel Madagascar

With average prices of 1.000 EUR, flying to Madagascar is certainly not a cheap thing. Corsair offers from Paris probably the cheapest option to fly from Europe to Antananarivo. If you avoid the high season from July to October you are quite likely to get a bargain of 700 EUR or even less for a return ticket! However, you will need to get to Paris somehow.

The most European carriers wit the exception of low cost airlines fly to Paris Charles de Gaulle. If this is so, you have to ride on the line 3 of the Air France shuttle-bus “Cars Air France”, which connects Charles de Gaulle with the other Paris airport, Paris Orly, every 30 min, where Corsair flights get of. The bus journey takes approximately 60 min and costs 16 € one way. You can buy your bus tickets directly from the bus driver. The bus also stops at the two terminals of both airports, so better if you try to find out in advance from which terminal your flight is departing from! 
For further information check:  www.cars-airfrance-pro.com

Of course you cannot check your luggage through if you are changing the airport. So be sure that you do not leave your baggage on the conveyor belt of the airport.

However some low coast airlines do fly directly to Paris Orly. Among the most popular you can find Easyjet, which regularly connects Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Geneva, Madrid, Milan, Naples, Nice, Pisa, Rome and Tolouse with the French capital.

LTU operates also flights to Paris Orly from following European airports: Duesseldorf, Haburg, Malaga, Munich, Palma de Mallorca, Stuttgart and Zurich.

If you are not able to find a carrier from your city to Paris Orly, try with Charles de Gaulle. Easyjet connects following European cities with this French airport: Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hamburg, Krakow, Lisbon, Liverpool, London, Newcastle, Porto and Venice.

Consider too that Corsair does not carry any liability if you should miss the flight to Madagascar because your European flight delayed. So be sure that you bring enough reserve time between both flights even though this might mean an unpleasant overnight at Orly airport…

Here you find the current flight schedule of Corsair from Paris Orly to Antananarivo:

Paris Orly – Antananarivo: Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays
Antananarivo – Paris Orly: Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays

You can also fly to Nosy Be with Corsair on Wednesdays. The flight gets back on Thursdays.
Airline’s website: www.corsairfly.com

If you are planning to fly a lot within Madagascar itself, you might be interested to know that the national air company Air Madagascar offers 30 % discount on all internal flights if you bought your international ticket with the same company.

Air Madagascar operates flights from Milan to Tana on Tuesdays and Saturdays and from Paris Charles de Gaulle daily excepting Tuesdays and Thursdays. You can fly back to Milan also on Tuesday and Saturday and to Paris on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. This schedule is meant to be valid until March 09 but of course it could unexpectedly change so check the official website of the airline at: www.airmadagascar.com

The clearest disadvantage travelling with Air Madagascar is that you have again to arrange getting either to Milan or to Paris somehow, which might increase the total flight price a little bit. On the site of Air Madagascar you can only buy the tickets ex Milan or Paris, which means that you will not obtain the flights from your city of origin to Milan or Paris issued on the same international tickets. This could again cause problems in terms of liability if you decide to fly with other airlines than Alitalia (to Milan) or Air France (to Paris), which do have a cooperation agreement with Air Madagascar. So better buy your tickets from your travel agent or at any flight searching machine like expedia.com. If all journeys are issued on the same tickets, you will be also allowed to check your baggage through

A different option would be Air France, departing also from Paris Charles de Gaulle. Average ticket prices for both airlines (Air Madagascar and Air France) depending on the season are 1.100 €, though the flight tickets to Paris from most European cities are already included in the ticket price of Air France. Air France flies from many European cities. Just check which is the nearest to you at: www.airfrance.com.

Another interesting and sometimes very cheap option is flying with Air Mauritius via Mauritius on the Indic Ocean. Air Mauritius flies from Frankfurt (Fridays and Sundays, back on Fridays and Sundays), Geneva (on Fridays, return on Fridays too), London (daily excepting Thursdays, back on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays), Milan (daily excepting Mondays and Thursdays, back on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays), Munich (on Sundays, flies back on Fridays and Sundays), Paris (flies daily excepting Fridays, gets back

daily), Rome (flies on Fridays) and Zurich (on Tuesdays, also back).  For current flight schedule check on the airline’s website at: www.airmauritius.com. With some good luck you will be able to find some bargains as for 700 € return. From Mauritius capital, also called Mauritius, you can easily get a connection flight to Antananarivo, which flies to the neighbourgh island everyday excepting Mondays and Fridays and back on the same weekdays. A return ticket from/to Tana from Mauritius will cost you approximately 250€.

It could be also interesting flying to Nairobi and from there get the Wednesday-flight to Antananarivo with Air Madagascar which approximately cost 450 € on return fare. KLM, Egypt Air, Brussels Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines and Emirates fly to Nairobi. With good luch you can obtain internet deals at 500 € for a return fare.

A further airline flying through one paradisiacal island on the Indic Ocean would be Air Austral flying via Reunion. Air Austral connects several French airports like Paris Roissy,  Marseille and Lyon with almost daily flights to Saint-Denise de la Reunion. From there, there exists a flight connection to Antananarivo on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays and back on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Expect to pay for the connecting flight from Reunion to Madagascar about 400 €. For the intercontinental flights prices start at 650 €. Other Madagascar airports with an Air Austral connection are Tamatave and Nosy Be (both with weekly flight on Saturdays). Web: www.airaustral.com.

And last but not least South African Airways flies from a couple of European airports like London, Frankfurt and Zurich via Johannesburg to Tana. You might consider this option if you are planning to extend your holiday with a classic safari in continental Africa. Average prices are 1.000 € for a return ticket. See: www.flysaa.com.