Wilson Airport and Kenya's safari flights

Wilson Airport is where Kenyan safaris really begin: a small terminal in Langata, a Cessna with your name on a clipboard, and 45 minutes later a dirt airstrip with a Land Cruiser waiting and a giraffe watching. Here is how the bush-flight system works, and why first-timers stop worrying about it by the second flight.

Wilson (code WIL) is Nairobi's second airport, 30 to 60 minutes by road from JKIA and 15 to 30 minutes from Karen. It is Kenya's busiest airport by aircraft movements, nearly all of them small planes: scheduled safari flights, charters and air ambulances. If your safari is fly-in, this is where it starts, and the rules are simple: check in an hour before, travel with about 15 kg in a soft bag, and leave four hours after any international arrival.

How the system works

Safari flights are scheduled services, sold by the seat, with set departure times. Most are milk runs: one aircraft leaves Wilson and lands at several airstrips, dropping off and picking up passengers, so your Mara flight may touch down once or twice before your strip. That is normal. Your camp knows the schedule, and the vehicle is waiting when you land.

The main scheduled airlines are Safarilink and Airkenya, with Governors' Aviation, Fly540, Fly-ALS and Mombasa Air Safari also flying safari routes, and charter companies for private planes. The larger airlines have their own terminals at Wilson, so tell your driver which airline you are flying.

Routes and flight times

What the fares look like

One-way fares run roughly $150 to $400 per person, depending on the route and the season. Nairobi to the Mara commonly costs about $200 to $250 one way. Return fares, children's fares and seasonal offers differ by airline. When flights are part of a trip we plan, the fare is in your quote, so there is nothing to pay at the airport.

The luggage rule

The rule that matters: about 15 kg (33 pounds) per person, including hand luggage and camera gear, in a soft-sided bag. The planes are limited by weight, and bags travel in a pod under the belly that a hard suitcase will not fit. On a full flight, overweight bags can be bumped to a later plane. Camps and hotels will store your extra luggage in Nairobi if we arrange it ahead. Our safari flight luggage page has the bag that works and a packing list that fits.

Check-in and timing your international connection

• Check in 60 minutes before departure. Bags are weighed at the desk, hand luggage included.
• Morning departures leave between about 7 and 10am; afternoon flights leave around 2 to 3pm.
• Never book less than four hours between an international arrival at JKIA and a Wilson departure.
• The Kenya Airways nonstop from New York lands at about 10:55am. With a transfer straight across town, it connects to an afternoon Mara flight.
• Evening arrivals from the Gulf or Europe need a night in Nairobi; you fly out the next morning.
• Screening is quick, and most domestic safari flights have no strict liquids rule, but the usual banned items still apply.

What the flight is like

Most safari routes use single-engine Cessna Caravans, which seat about 12, or twin-engine Dash 8s on busier routes. Everyone gets a window seat. The smaller planes have no toilet, so go before you board; the flights are short. You fly low enough to watch Nairobi give way to the Rift Valley escarpment, then open plains and the line of a river. On landing, the pilot may make a low pass over a dirt strip first to clear animals off it. Some strips are longer than you would expect: the runway at Keekorok in the Mara is about 1,500 meters.

Your guide meets you at the strip, loads the bags and often starts the game drive on the way to camp. On the way out, you are driven back to the strip in time for the flight, and the pilot waits for the dust to settle before calling you aboard.

For nervous flyers

These are among the most-flown light-aircraft routes in Africa, and the pilots fly them every day. Weather delays are rare in the dry season and usually short in the rains, when a pilot may wait for a storm to pass. If small planes make you anxious, ask for a seat near the front, take motion-sickness tablets if you need them, and tell the crew: they hear it often and will talk you through the flight. If you would rather not fly at all, every major park can be reached by road. Our fly-in vs road guide compares the two honestly.

When to choose a flight over the road

• The Mara by road is five to six hours from Nairobi; by air it is under an hour and a half.
• Samburu, Lewa and Laikipia combine well by air, saving most of a day on the road each way.
• Mara to the coast by air is a single afternoon; by road it is a full day or more.
• Road safaris win on cost for families and groups, and you see more of the country between parks.