South Africa, who flies there and how long does it take to get there?

A conversation with a client who is taking their first trip to South Africa will usually start with a discussion about the logistics. Many are surprised to learn that despite the distance involved there are quite a few options for US visitors flying to South Africa. Here's a quick overview....

Direct Flights to South Africa from the USA.
Two airlines offer direct service from the USA to South Africa, South African Airways and Delta. South African Airways, South Africa's National airline, operate two flights a day from the USA. One from New York's JFK Airport and one from Washington Dulles Airport. Both flights are to Johannesburg's OR Tambo Airport which acts as a hub for most of Southern Africa. If your final destination is Cape Town or Durban you will clear customs and immigration in Johannesburg and stroll over to the nearby domestic terminal for your onward connection. The South African Airways flight from JFK makes a fuel stop in Dakar, Senegal. Usually the aircraft is on the ground for about 1 hour and passengers do not deplane. Total flying time from JFK to Johannesburg including the time spent on the ground in Senegal is approximately 17hours and 45 minutes.

The South African Airways flight from Washington Dulles is currently the only non-stop flight from the USA with a flying time of approximately 15 hours and 30 minutes to Johannesburg. This flight however does make a fuel stop in Dakar on the return leg back to Dulles. Also, during the busy summer months from around 15 June to 15 August the aircraft makes the Dakar fuel stop in both directions.

South African Airways or SAA as they are commonly known, are members of the Star Alliance and offer good add on rates with partner airlines from many cities throughout the USA. This works particularly well when using United Airlines who hub at Washington Dulles. The timing of the SAA departure in the early evening facilitates good connections from United's many West Coast and Mid West cities.

Delta Airlines offer year round daily service from Atlanta to Johannesburg. Again the flight stops in Dakar in both directions for re fueling. Flying time from Atlanta to Johannesburg is approximately 18 hours and 15 minutes. Connections with Delta from most points in the USA through Atlanta are quite good. Starting early June 2008 Delta will also offer direct service from New York's JFK airport to Cape Town 4 times a week. This flight also makes a fuel stop in Dakar in both directions. The timing of the Dakar stop is set to coincide with that of Delta's Johannesburg bound flight from Atlanta. This gives passengers on the New York flight an option to connect in Dakar to Johannesburg and passengers on the Atlanta flight the option to connect to Cape Town.

Flights via Europe to South Africa
Many European carriers offer service to South Africa. These include British Airways and Virgin Atlantic from London, Lufthansa from Frankfurt, Iberia from Madrid, Swiss from Zurich, KLM from Amsterdam and Air France from Paris to name a few. Most of the flights offered by these carriers are evening departures from Europe to South Africa. If you live on the East Coast of the USA and are considering using one of these connections you may be faced with quite a long layover in Europe. Most flights from New York, Boston, Washington and Atlanta to Europe tend to be evening departures with arrival times in Europe somewhere between 8am and 11am the following morning. The onward connection to Johannesburg or Cape Town usually departs Europe between 7pm and 9pm in the evening. In short this amounts to a layover of between 8 to 13 hours adding greatly to the travel time.

At the time of writing only two carriers offer a morning departure from Europe, Air France from Paris to Johannesburg and KLM from Amsterdam to Johannesburg and Cape Town. Both of these carriers offer great connections of between 2 and 4 hours in Europe for East Coast passengers bound for South Africa.

For those coming from the West Coast a connection through Europe maybe a more viable option. European Flights from Los Angeles and San Francisco also tend to depart in the evening with arrival times the following afternoon. The later arrival time in Europe will leave most with a respectable 3 to 5 hour connection before continuing onwards to South Africa.

Flights via South America to South Africa
South African Airways operates a daily non stop service from Sao Paulo, Brazil to Johannesburg. As both cities share roughly the same latitude flying time across the ocean is a quick 9 hours. Connections from the USA via Sao Paulo however are not great and in our experience this is seldom used as a routing for passengers from North America.

So as you can see there are quite few options for those bound for South Africa. However it still close to impossible to find a decent airfare in July or August!