I have a couple questions.
How much would a typical flight, both ways, to Madagascar from Seattle cost? Would the fare vary from city (in Madagascar) to city, by much? Are there many flights there at all? A friend has told me that there are very few airports there.
Does Madagascar have political problems at the moment?
Joey.
Airports in Madagascar:
That’s not very many, and given the small size (and unpaved nature) of most of them, I would recommend highly against air travel within Madagascar.
I can’t resist. WHY are you going to Madagascar?
I’m not, after I found out that the cheapest ticket Orbitz could find was $2512.
Joey.
There has been serious political problems last year, following a controversial election, both main candidates having declared themselves the winner, and each side controling part of the country. It lasted for a long time, but eventuallly, the issue was solved (the former president left the country under popular pressure), and AFAIK, everything came back to the normal state of affairs. However, you shouldn’t take my word on this, and should check your country’s (or/and other countries) foreign affairs advices and warning to travellers (can’t remember the site adress for the US…which by the way has the reputation of being quite conservative and cautious in its warnings)
A little bit cheaper… Travelocity.com found flights from SEA to TNR (Antananarivo) for $1709 with Air France.
Not a cheap pace to get to, though. And probably too warm for penguins, anyhow.
It mostly looked like standard fare, but I was surprised by this:
Also, does it seem strange to anyone else that you can export 1 kg of jewels but only 100 g of vanilla? 
Well, we don’t know what breed JoeyThePenguin is. He could be one of those South African or Australian penguins, so he’d do okay on a Madagascarian vacation.
I wouldn’t be surprised if real vanilla costs more than topazes, ounce for ounce. It’s the most labor-intensive crop in the world.
I’ve been to Madagascar, in February of 1990. We flew from Oslo, Norway to Tana on Aeroflot, with stops along the way Moscow, Larnaca (Cyprus), and Aden (Yemen). It was with a school trip and Aeroflot was the cheapest, for obvious reasons. Only one airport I think is capable of landing large jets, and that’s the main airport in Tana. Feel free to email me directly if you have any questions.
The Madagascar Embassy in Washington has a good site full of information. It is also one of the world’s hotspots for interesting tropical diseases, especially Malaria.
Try the Lonely Planet site:
The Thorn Tree boards are especcially helpful for up-to-date travel information.