Etihad Airways is set to substantially expand its Abu Dhabi-Zanzibar service during the Northern winter 2026/27 season, moving the Indian Ocean route from a part-week operation to twice-daily flying.
According to AeroRoutes, the route is currently scheduled four times weekly. From 25 October 2026, the airline will increase overall service to one daily flight, and a second daily service is scheduled from 1 December 2026.
Airbus A320ceo and A320neo aircraft are set to serve the route. The morning rotation operates as EY791, departing Abu Dhabi at 08:50 and arriving in Zanzibar at 13:35, returning as EY794 from Zanzibar at 05:50 with a 12:25 arrival in Abu Dhabi. The second daily rotation departs Abu Dhabi as EY793 at 21:15, arriving in Zanzibar at 02:00 the following morning, with EY792 leaving Zanzibar at 17:55 and reaching Abu Dhabi at 00:30 the next day.
The build-up is timed to the Zanzibar high season. The archipelago's peak tourism window runs through the Northern winter, when the long dry season delivers the most reliable weather and European and Gulf leisure demand is at its strongest. Adding the second frequency from December rather than October places the extra capacity exactly where the seasonal curve is steepest.
The route also illustrates how Abu Dhabi functions in Etihad's network. Zanzibar is not primarily an origin-and-destination market for the United Arab Emirates; much of the traffic connects over Abu Dhabi from Europe and Asia, where the archipelago has become an established long-haul beach destination. Two daily rotations, one arriving in the early afternoon and one in the small hours, give the airline two distinct connecting banks to feed rather than one, which materially widens the range of onward city pairs that can be sold over the hub.
Aircraft choice is equally telling. Running the route with A320-family narrowbodies rather than a widebody lets Etihad add frequency instead of size, and frequency is what drives connectivity. Two daily narrowbody flights typically generate more sellable connections than a single larger aircraft carrying the same total seats, and they give passengers more flexibility on both the outbound and return.
The expansion sits within a broader pattern at Etihad, which has been steadily rebuilding and extending its network as its fleet grows. The carrier has increasingly leaned on the reach of the A320neo family and its larger derivatives to open and thicken medium-haul markets from Abu Dhabi that would once have required widebody equipment.
For Zanzibar itself, the additional service is meaningful. Airlift is the principal constraint on visitor numbers to the islands, and moving from four weekly flights to fourteen represents a considerable step change in seat capacity from one carrier alone over a single season.
As always with schedule filings this far ahead, the timings and frequencies remain subject to change before the season begins.
Sources: AeroRoutes. Featured image: AI-generated by AviationShop. By James Holloway.
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