Cheapest way to get to Madagascar

I am currently in Ethiopia and plan to backpack my way down the East coast of Africa before flying out of South Africa. I would really like to get to Madagascar but all the flights I have found online are too expensive. Does anyone know of how I could find cheap flights / ship etc.
Thanks in advance.
Cameron

Try to find the cheapest flight on skyscanner.com
Good luck!
Terreza

Out of South Africa, Air Madagascar and South African Airways are your only options if you are looking for direct flights. If you don't bother to change planes, Air Mauritius changing planes in Mauritius could be another alternative some days (although the transit time in Mauritius is long). I wouldn't expect a bargain for the route from Johannesburg to Antananarivo though.

An option you could consider is to make Madagascar as a side trip from Kenya; i.e.: to go from Kenya to Madagascar, return to Kenya and continue overland to South Africa. Take a look at the web of Air Madagascar for fares from Nairobi to Madagascar. Take a look too at Kenya Airways. Verify previously the schedule of both airlines as I think flights aren't daily. Air Madagascar is more likely to be cheaper.

Thanks for the information. I had tried skyscanner before we left and could not find anything under €500 each person. It did look as though it would be cheapest from Nairobi but this still looks outside our budget. Neither of us speak French so the air Madagascar site is difficult. In Ethiopia the flights are cheaper at the Ethiopian office I have been told so I thought there may be something similar I could follow up when we travel into Kenya next week.

It seems Air Madagascar has discontinued the route to/from Nairobi (at least I can't see the schedule for that route neither in December nor in January although they still allow you to choose Nairobi as departure point). It's a pity as they had some good fares for that route in the past. In any case, I would stay tunned to see if they resume that route on your travel dates.

As Air Madagascar doesn't seem to fly now from Nairobi to Magadascar, the only options for direct flights would be Kenya Airways (out of Nairobi) and South African Airways and Air Madagascar (out of Johannesburg; Air Madagascar still flies out of Johannesburg altough not daily). Air Mauritius (out of Johannesburg) changing planes in Mauritius is unlikely to be cheaper. Other options (like going via Moroni or Reunion) would require overnight stops and, in some cases, to book with two different airlines and are (very) unlikely to be cheaper.

Air Madagascar is definitely no longer flying from Nairobi at present, so if you want to try to reach Madagascar from there, your options are limited to Kenya Airways’ direct flight or Air Mauritius to Mauritius from where you can continue either with them or with Air Madagascar.

There are no passenger sea connections from the African mainland, so ship is out. The only sea connection into Madagascar goes from Mauritius and is not cheap.

Generally, for flights to Madagascar it’s a seller’s market – there aren’t enough airlines competing. From Johannesburg, you’re unlikely to get a flight for less than €500 whichever of the two airlines (Air Mad or SAA) you fly with.

Skyscanner is good for showing you potential connections, but in my experience it’s not likely to give you the best price you can get if you put in a little more effort of your own. To name just one example, for a flight I’ve recently booked into Madagascar, skyscanner’s offerings ranged from €100 to €800 more than what I was able to get from a combination of the websites of Air France and Air Madagascar and the Air Mad call centre in Paris. They’re also quite inflexible – if you want to stopover a couple of days between legs of an itinerary, the site doesn’t seem able to handle it. It expects you always to want to take the next available onward flight. If I use skyscanner at all, then to tell me which airline website it would be interesting to take a look at.

It would certainly be a good idea if Air Madagascar created an English version of their website, but it is fairly intuitive, and you might find you can handle it even without any French if you give it a try..