East African carriers FlyALS (Nairobi Wilson) and Auric Air (UI, Mwanza) have entered into a strategic "wing-to-wing" partnership to create an "aerial bridge" bypassing the long road transfers between Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve and Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park. The low-volume scheduled service with Cessna (single turboprop) Grand Caravans is set to launch on June 1, 2026, in time for peak safari season.

Branded under the tagline "skip the road, fly the wild," the new air corridor will serve airstrips in the Masai Mara and the Serengeti via the Lake Victoria gateway towns of Kisumu in Kenya and Musoma in Tanzania - an across-border trip of 296 kilometres or more than five hours by road. Immigration will be handled at Kisumu and Musoma airports, the airlines said in a joint statement.

From Kisumu and Musoma, flights will operate daily, connecting airfields in the Serengeti, Lake Manyara, Tarangire National Park, and the Masai Mara, according to the published schedule. Three times a week, FlyALS will operate the leg between the Masai Mara and Kisumu, while Auric Air will take passengers from Kisumu to the Serengeti. Four times a week, the passenger swap will take place at Musoma, where FlyALS will bring guests from the Masai Mara, while Auric Air will take them onwards from Musoma to the Serengeti, including Manyara and Tarangire.

The airlines also offer a second option, including a brief ground transfer across the border. Passengers fly with Auric Air from the Serengeti to Tarime, a small airport in the Mara region. They are then met for a ground transfer across the border for immigration clearance, arriving at Migori Lichota Airstrip in Kenya, from which FlyALS flies them into the Masai Mara. The reverse trip applies from the Masai Mara.

Auric Air grows fleet

Meanwhile, Auric Air CEO Nurmohamed Hussein has confirmed to ch-aviation that the Tanzanian carrier has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Avmax Aircraft Leasing to lease-purchase a DHC-8-Q300 (msn 595). ch-aviation fleet data shows the 23.3-year-old aircraft is currently registered as C-FJHQ. It is stored at Calgary and was formerly operated by Eastern Australia Airlines.

This addition will strengthen Auric Air's in-house fleet to include three DHC-8-Q300s (it already operates two former Eastern Australia Airlines Q300s), one DHC-8-100, one DHC-8-200, nineteen Cessna Caravans, and two PC-12 NGs. Auric also wet-leases three DHC-8-100s (two from FlyALS parent ALS - Aircraft Leasing Services and one from Kenya's Renegade Air).