diff --git a/Lib/zoneinfo/_tzpath.py b/Lib/zoneinfo/_tzpath.py
index 5db17bea045d8c..78fa6f00a8590a 100644
--- a/Lib/zoneinfo/_tzpath.py
+++ b/Lib/zoneinfo/_tzpath.py
@@ -124,7 +124,8 @@ def available_timezones():
     # Start with loading from the tzdata package if it exists: this has a
     # pre-assembled list of zones that only requires opening one file.
     try:
-        with resources.files("tzdata").joinpath("zones").open("r") as f:
+        zones_file = resources.files("tzdata").joinpath("zones")
+        with zones_file.open("r", encoding="utf-8") as f:
             for zone in f:
                 zone = zone.strip()
                 if zone: