Arusha Airport
We will be arrving at Arusha airport on July 24, 2026 and wondering what others' experiences were like upon arrival.
Crowds, Customs, sinage or anything else you think might be of interest to a newbie.
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We will be arrving at Arusha airport on July 24, 2026 and wondering what others' experiences were like upon arrival.
Crowds, Customs, sinage or anything else you think might be of interest to a newbie.
Comments
It’s not that bad. My tip is to be at the head of the line. Have all your paperwork with your visa things on them, make sure you have signed anything you have to sign before you get off the plane. The immigration officers will want to see them, all the pages, not just the visa.
If you are flying Delta/KLM be sure you have two outfits and any necessary things in your carry on bag as quite often bags don’t make this flight from Amsterdam. Apparently one in seven bags don’t make the flight, happened to us once. As there is only one flight a day, you will be at least 24 hrs without your bag. Someone on one of our trips entering Arusha had to wait four days for her bag to arrive.
We had to show our boarding passes from our flight before going in the terminal, so have those handy. Agree with British, try to get off the plane and in line quickly. We flew Qatar Airlines. No bag problems. It is a long ride, about 60-90 minutes to hotel.
There is an Arusha airport, but that is not likely where you are flying. You most likely will arrive at Kilimanjaro. If you have your visa, highly recommended, make sure you get in the correct line with the people with visas, not the visa upon arrival line. If you don’t arrive with a visa you will likely be in line for two hours.
You are correct SeaLord, the airport is Kilimanjaro, the code is KRO I think, that's where all the international flights go TrippleTime. I always call it Arusha airport too.
Sorry, I did mean KRO for the Arusha airport.
We will (hopefull) be able to do just carry-on duffle bags and not need to check any luggage.
Good advice about getting off the airplane as soon as possible to beat the rush to customs. I see on this forum that applying for and getting the eVisa is a challenge but worth the effort.
Thanks to everyone. We will be on the "Kenya & Tanzania: A Classic Safari" tour starting 7/25/2026. Anyone else also on that tour?
We were just there in June and had no wait at customs. Just a quick look at the visa and we were on our way, 5 minutes tops.
You are one letter off- the code for Kilimanjaro International Airport is JRO!
FYI, it is 30 miles and a 1 hr and 11 minutes drive from the airport to the Gran Melia Hotel in Arusha. While the terminal is fairly small, the runway at JRO can handle large widebody commercial aircraft. It is where all international flights land. It is considered the gateway to Tanzania and the Serengeti. We flew there in a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. I'm not sure where you land if you fly with Proflight from Nairobi on their smaller aircraft - probably still JRO because it is an international flight so you need an airport with customs and immigration.
Arusha has a much smaller municipal airport as well- ARK. It is only 7 miles and 28 min. from the Gran Melia. Tours returning to Arusha from the Serengeti on small planes, land at the Arusha Airport. Arusha has a much shorter runway and smaller terminal. Despite this, but because both Arusha and Kilimanjaro runways run east - west and are generally aligned, a large Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 landed at Arusha Airport by mistake(?) on December 18, 2013. It was a real nail bitter for the aircraft to stop before running off into the boonies on landing, and to take off again a few days later. They had to remove all baggage and most of the fuel to lighten the aircraft, but it still took every inch of runway and then some!!
If you search YouTube you can find the video. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=819397615974328
When we were there many years ago, they had a Boyscout troop helping immigration!
Whoops,, JRO. I’m trying to remember if that is one of the airports where they scan your baggage going into the country? I was only there a year ago and it was my fourth time, but still I can’t remember. I guess I only remember bad airports like our own Philly one..
..we also have worse roads around here than Tanzania too.
Yes. We had our luggage scanned, and once out the door there is no place to sit except the ground. On our trip before last a family of six arrived without visas, and we waited over two hours for them to appear. I ‘advised’ Tauck of that experience, and on our next trip there was a car that took us immediately to the hotel.
Sealord (great moniker by the way): was just the checked baggage scanned or carry-on as well?
AlanS: Here's hoping we land at the proper airport JRO!
I think it was all bags. It was not a big deal