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Find cheap flights to South Africa from $418

This is the cheapest one-way flight price found by a KAYAK user in the last 72 hours by searching for a flight from the United States to South Africa departing on 11/12. Fares are subject to change and may not be available on all flights or dates of travel. Click the price to replicate the search for this deal.
1 adult
0 bags
sáb. 7/6
sáb. 7/13

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Best South Africa Flight Deals

Cheapest round-trip prices found by our users on KAYAK in the last 72 hours

Johannesburg
Johannesburg1 stop$565
Cape Town
Cape Town1 stop$855
Port Elizabeth
Port Elizabeth2 stops$1,171
Hoedspruit
Hoedspruit2 stops$1,458
George
George2 stops$1,141
East London
East London2 stops$1,755
Skukuza
Skukuza2 stops$1,896
Pietermaritzburg
Pietermaritzburg2 stops$2,004
Mthatha
Mthatha2 stops$1,912

Good to know

Low season

January

High season

December

Cheapest flight

$418
Best time to beat the crowds with an average 12% drop in price.
Most popular time to fly with an average 20% increase in price.
Flight from New York John F Kennedy Airport to Cape Town

FAQs - booking South Africa flights

  • What transport options do I have from Oliver Tambo International Airport?

    JNB connects to a train link system that offers transit to and from the airport. You could take a train to the city center when visiting South Africa and land at Tambo Airport. The train link runs at 12-minute intervals and operates between 5:15 a.m. and 10 p.m. You can also hire a metered taxi at the ground transportation area. You can use hotel shuttles serving the airport if you check into one of the hotels.

  • Do South African airports offer accessible services to passengers with special needs?

    Passengers with reduced mobility can request wheelchairs from the airlines. You can request pre-boarding, boarding, and aisle chair assistance at any of the airports. The airports have wheelchair-accessible facilities to allow for independent access by passengers with limited mobility. To acquire the accessibility services, ensure you make a reservation at least two days before your travel date. The airports also have facilities suited for hard-of-hearing passengers and the visually impaired.

  • Can I rent a car at South Africa's airports?

    Yes, South Africa's airports offer car rental services for convenient movement around the country. The airports' car rental agencies include Avis, Capital, Europcar, Select, Thrifty, and Woodford car rental. To rent a vehicle, you must be at least 18 years old, a valid driver's license holder for at least a year, and an International Driver's Permit holder. The renting process is easy as you can drive out of the airport with your rental car upon landing.

  • What are the most common layover cities when flying to South Africa?

    You can opt for direct flights from the U.S. to different parts of South Africa. However, if a flight with layovers fits you, there are several options. The layover destination you choose depends on the origin city and the destination city in SA. If you are flying into SA Johannesburg from Chicago's ORD, you can have your layover in Paris (CGD) or Istanbul (IST). From ATL, you can stop in Amsterdam (AMS). You can also have your layover at Amsterdam or Frankfurt (FRA) when flying to SA from New York JFK.

  • Are there nonstop flights to South Africa?

    Although there are flights from the United States available to over a dozen different small and large cities throughout South Africa, the only nonstop flights from the US to South Africa arrive in Johannesburg. Some of the nonstop flights to Johannesburg are available from Atlanta and Washington, DC.

  • Do I need a visa to enter South Africa?

    To visit South Africa for a duration of up to 90 days, United States nationals are not required to acquire a visa in advance. Instead, a visitor’s visa can be obtained at the port of entry on arrival. Official visa rules can be found on South Africa’s government immigration website and are subject to change without notice.

  • Where should I fly to if I want to visit Kruger National Park?

    If you’re one of the many tourists heading to South Africa to visit the Kruger National Park, it can be handy to fly into Mpumalanga International Airport (MQP). Although there are no direct routes, this airport gives direct access to the southern section of Kruger National Park. One of the most common layovers is in Johannesburg and you can find that more than one airline operates the route. Some of the companies are South Africa and jetBlue.

  • I want to visit Table Mountain in South Africa, which city should I fly to?

    Table Mountain is another extremely popular tourist destination in South Africa, and it lies just outside of the city of Cape Town. To get there, you can fly into Cape Town then take one of the many available buses or taxis to the base of Table Mountain, where you can either hike or take a cable car the rest of the way.

  • How long is the flight to South Africa?

    An average nonstop flight from the United States to South Africa takes 23h 40m, covering a distance of 8741 miles. The most popular route is New York - Johannesburg with an average flight time of 21h 35m.

  • What is the cheapest flight to South Africa?

    The cheapest ticket to South Africa from the United States found in the last 72 hours was $907 one-way, and $562 round-trip. The most popular route is New York John F Kennedy Intl to Johannesburg OR Tambo and the cheapest round-trip airline ticket found on this route in the last 72 hours was $757.

  • Which airlines fly to South Africa?

    United Airlines & Delta fly the most frequently from the United States to South Africa.

  • What are the most popular destinations in South Africa?

    Based on KAYAK flight searches, the most popular destination is Johannesburg (40% of total searches to South Africa). The next most popular destinations are Cape Town (39%) and Sun City Resort (15%). Searches for flights to Durban (3%), to Port Elizabeth (0.7%) and to Hoedspruit (0.3%) are also popular.

  • How does KAYAK’s flight Price Forecast tool help me choose the right time to buy?

    KAYAK’s flight Price Forecast tool uses historical data to determine whether the price for a given destination and date is likely to change within 7 days, so travelers know whether to wait or book now.

See more FAQs

Top tips for finding cheap flights to South Africa

  • Enter your preferred departure airport and travel dates into the search form above to unlock the latest South Africa flight deals.
  • South Africa has three main international airports spread through its three major cities — Johannesburg's Oliver Tambo Airport (JNB), Cape Town's Airport (CPT), and Durban's King Shaka Airport (DUR). CPT is the metropolitan area's main gateway, JNB has good accessibility and connectivity, and DUR is the best regional airport in South Africa.
  • Oliver Tambo Airport in Johannesburg is South Africa's primary hub, the busiest in the continent and the center for South African Airways. If you are flying into South Africa from the U.S., consider landing in JNB, as it serves six continents globally.
  • Johannesburg is South Africa's gateway and an entry point for direct flights from the U.S. All direct flights from the U.S. land in Johannesburg from Atlanta (ATL), New York (JFK), and Washington, D.C. (IAD). The destination airport is JNB.
  • If you are flying to Oliver Tambo Airport, the airport is easy to maneuver. JNB consists of two terminals, A and B, with a central terminal building handling luggage and check-in connecting the two terminals. You can walk to either of the terminals.
  • If you are visiting the metropolitan area of South Africa, fly into Cape Town Airport, which offers a hassle-free travel experience. The airport is the only one in the metro area offering scheduled passenger services.
  • Getting to South Africa will almost certainly involve a layover, which commonly also includes a change in airline. One of the most common (and most affordable) routes to South Africa from the United States is from New York City (JFK Airport) to Johannesburg. This route is nonstop and is operated by South Africa Airways.
  • When booking your flight to South Africa, you’ll have no shortage of airports to choose from. There are more than 15 international airports in South Africa that you can fly to from the United States, with the airports in Johannesburg and Cape Town seeing the most international air traffic.
  • Heading to the Valley of 1,000 hills? This popular attraction is located in the Durban area. To get there, you’ll have to fly into Durban King Shaka International Airport (DUR). Located in the city of La Mercy, the airport is reachable via a layover in Johannesburg.
  • If you’re one of the many tourists heading to South Africa to hike up to Lion’s Head, you’ll have to fly into Cape Town for convenient access. Common layovers between the US and Cape Town include Madrid and Johannesburg.
  • To reach Ballito (nicknamed the Dolphin Coast), your best option is to fly into Durban King Shaka International Airport. Direct flights to this airport aren’t available from the US, with most involving a layover in Johannesburg.
See more tips

Top 5 airlines flying to South Africa

Need help choosing which airline to fly with from the United States to South Africa? KAYAK airline reviews give an overall score for each airline based on loads of factors, including comfort, boarding, in-flight entertainment and more, to make your decision easier. See airline scores according to verified KAYAK customer reviews.
8.0
DeltaOverall score based on 10368 reviews
8.2Boarding
8.6Crew
7.9Comfort
8.0Entertainment
7.4Food
Airline reviews

Really bad baggage handling. Had my Rimowa bag badly damaged at the latches.

4.0 OkayDavwinder Singh, Jun 2024SEA - ATL
Read more about Delta reviews

Really bad baggage handling. Had my Rimowa bag badly damaged at the latches.

It was pretty good I was worried with the short Layover that I might not catch my connection but the gate was there

It was good until there was a 3 hour delay because there was not any pilots to fly the plane.

There was plenty of overhead room but half of the passengers were told they had to check their carryon bags. My partner and I checked in as early as possible and our seats were split across the aisle.

Friendly flight attendants. Comfort plus seats were very comfortable and had lots of leg room. 10A and 10 B.

I've flown many many times on Northwest and then Delta. The crew on this flight were absolutely the best I've had the pleasure of being looked after by.

Flew first class so everything was great. But maybe because the flights were red eye, no meals were served, just chips. I flew Alaska Air 1st class at 9PM (2 hour flight) and they served beef short rib sliders!

Had to change aircraft due to a faulty door. Surprisingly it only caused about an hour and a half of delay. Delta handled this situation as well as can be expected.

Awful. Flight was continuously getting delayed and gates kept changing without any reason. Flight was delayed for more then 3 hours

Paid premium for Delta only to be on safe but tired old 767 with ancient cabin in mediocre condition. Poor wifi and horrible inflight entertainment. Hardly a premium experience. Should have flown SW and had fun flight crew and no pretense

Overnight flight in the old style Business class, but still very good.

I was in business class, without the business class amenities. Large seat with lots of legroom, but no TV or bed. Food was okay, but I did enjoy the Turkish red wine.

Excellent service and comfort from the moment you check in. Flight crew is hyper focused on making passengers comfortable and at ease. It’s like a flying hotel!

Only chicken as a meat dish through out the flight

Nothing really was great as such. Seen other no name airlines perform better.

Quality of service on board was very inconsistent. FA service primarily seemed robotic and they barely engaged with passengers

I’m unclear why I had to pay extra for assigned seats as Turkish airlines did not honor the seating. We were placed across the aisle from each other on TK 34, and were seated behind one another on TK 694. Because my name was misspelled on e-ticket (Klawiter, instead of Klawitter) I could not log onto website to get the connection gate number in Istanbul. The monitors in the airport were a jumbled mess 1/2 Arabic and 1/2 English.

On line check in needs a lot of improvement. I tried and gave up.

Food not good, flight attendants not the best, not accommodating very ruff

the female flight attendant was racist towards me. I could tell she treated the two other passengers next to me with more softness.

After the morning frenzy of 35 min wait through CLT security at 4;30 AM, it was nice to have a smooth pleasant boarding experience. This 6:30 AM flight was not full. We were able to get seated swiftly and took off promptly. Nice touch they distributed the old fashioned headsets with 8 mm jacks. Snacks were decent and arrival was uneventful.

My window shade didn’t work. So I missed coming into my city. ☹️

Flight was delayed in the gate by 5 hours and ultimately cancelled- rebooking service by United agents was terrible

Everything was pretty good except for food. They need to improve on it compared to other airlines.

Flight was delayed due to the late arrival of the catering truck, which is quite unacceptable. There was a beverage service, but no pretzel, or cookie, or nuts were served in coach.

Not worth the premium paid for the first class ticket

Not worth the price of premium class ticket paid, felt more like steerage.

Flighty delayed on boarding - then group 1 had to check their carry on bags but groups 3 and beyond could carry bags on - very inconvenient for weekend business trip with no checked baggage. Then delayed on the runway - before take off. No communication from pilot on why or how long. Wifi/Entertainment didn't work for 4+ flight. Upon arrival, attendants announced wrong carousel for baggage claim - everyone was waiting at the wrong place for their checked bags. This was a mess united!

I flew Delta last week and United Airlines is a poor substitute mechanical problems with the plane and shitty food among other things made my travel experience what’s become to be expected from United no way is it ever worth the money they make us pay

I had a great flight. Everything went smoothly and the flight arrived early.

This flight was canceled and delayed several times without explanation. The plane was freezing cold and no wifi for messaging. Getting off the plane was terribly unorganized and felt like it took forever….

The flight was delayed several times without explanation. The seats were terribly uncomfortable and wifi isn’t included. All these make for a less than ideal flight.

The flights was delayed by hours and it was the firmest landing I have experienced in my life. My back is still sore.

Internet service was erratic. Crew service was poor and slow. My luggage on this non-stop flight was lost and not recovered

Terrible. I didn’t fly and I had an important meeting the next day.

Missed this flight due to the first AA flight delay

Equipment swap led to 2+ hour delay on international flight. And to top it off, boarding took forever.

Wretched scheduling - they got themselves into a critical crew situation and didn’t try to address it until 15 minutes before they had to cancel my flight

They cancelled two flight and got us onto another airline, which was also delayed.

Nothing, terrible travel experience due to weather and maintenance delays and was left stranded in Austin.

Economy class has no legroom so if you have the money worth to upgrade! Food was absolutely horrible! The crew was super nice!!!!!

The flight was provided by Aer Lingus and our seats were in a poor condition (15A & 15C). They looked like they needed repairing/replacing and were uncomfortable for such a long flight. Also the arm rests on Aer Lingus planes do not lift more than around 45 degrees, instead of the usual 90 degrees upright, meaning you cannot maximum the space between you & your travel companion so as to be more comfortable for such a long flight.

Flights were actually with Aer Lingus outward and American Airlines & Aer Lingus on the return journey. Outward flight with Aer Lingus was good but the return flight with them was not so good as our seats were in a poor condition (15A & 15C) and looked like they needed replacing! The American Airlines flight from Miami to JFK New York was good and the seats were very comfortable and spacious (32D & 32E)

Awful. Delay, lost vacation time and travel time now more than 24h

Awful. Flight delayed and we missed our long flight to Rome. It has been a nightmare and we have still not arrived. It was NOT a weather delay, just poor planning by AA

Boarding was as fast and efficient as possible. The flight crew were amazing and extremely friendly. We enjoyed our flight.

Very bed boarding, there was overbooked and make a lot of problems and noises

There was a problem in the luggage because there were not porters

On my way from Chicago to London, I was seated next to a quite heavy passenger. I could barely move. BA should have ensured that overweight customers are placed in comfortable seats and not to penalize also other passengers because BA is not willing to accommodate these passengers and their needs. No respect at all.

The flight as far as timings go was excellent. Unfortunately we ended up sat with someone on a night flight who had been drinking alcohol before boarding and BA staff were happily serving him more alcohol. He was very drunk which made our flight uncomfortable and awkward. My partner had this person lying on him whilst asleep. Alcohol should be served minimally. If there had been an emergency this person would not have been in a fit state to act accordingly.

Book Cheap South Africa Plane Tickets

Recent round-trip flight deals

10/7lun.
1 stopEthiopian Air
20h 15mATL-JNB
10/17jue.
2 stopsEthiopian Air
24h 25mJNB-ATL
$625
10/28lun.
1 stopTurkish Airlines
38h 50mJFK-JNB
11/11lun.
1 stopTurkish Airlines
34h 10mJNB-JFK
$757
9/24mar.
1 stopAmerican Airlines
34h 10mJFK-CPT
9/30lun.
1 stopAmerican Airlines
29h 10mCPT-JFK
$1,174
9/21sáb.
1 stopAmerican Airlines
21h 05mJFK-CPT
9/29dom.
1 stopAmerican Airlines
29h 10mCPT-JFK
$1,175
8/16vie.
2 stopsBritish Airways
32h 20mIAD-CPT
8/24sáb.
2 stopsBritish Airways
26h 45mCPT-IAD
$1,223
10/10jue.
2 stopsBritish Airways
31h 55mIAD-CPT
10/28lun.
2 stopsBritish Airways
25h 45mCPT-IAD
$1,228
10/6dom.
nonstopUnited Airlines
14h 55mEWR-CPT
10/24jue.
nonstopUnited Airlines
15h 40mCPT-EWR
$1,312
9/23lun.
nonstopUnited Airlines
14h 50mIAD-CPT
10/8mar.
nonstopUnited Airlines
15h 35mCPT-IAD
$1,312
9/9lun.
1 stopDelta
26h 50mDCA-CPT
9/17mar.
1 stopDelta
19h 30mCPT-DCA
$1,326
8/31sáb.
1 stopDelta
25h 51mLGA-CPT
9/10mar.
1 stopDelta
24h 14mCPT-LGA
$1,326

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Recent one-way flight deals

11/12mar.
1 stopNorse Atlantic UK
32h 20mJFK-CPT
$418
9/9lun.
1 stopKenya Airways
25h 55mJFK-CPT
$485
11/12mar.
1 stopTurkish Airlines
29h 50mATL-JNB
$677
12/3mar.
1 stopTurkish Airlines
29h 50mATL-JNB
$720
11/11lun.
2 stopsBritish Airways
26h 56mDCA-CPT
$856
9/1dom.
1 stopBritish Airways
31h 35mBWI-CPT
$955
9/6vie.
nonstopUnited Airlines
14h 55mEWR-CPT
$1,118
10/17jue.
nonstopUnited Airlines
14h 55mEWR-JNB
$1,118
9/16lun.
1 stopDelta
20h 50mLGA-CPT
$1,122
6/29sáb.
1 stopDelta
26h 37mEWR-JNB
$1,175

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Last minute flights to South Africa

Last minute flight, train and bus deals

6/9dom.
multi-stopEthiopian Air
24h 10mEWR-JNB
6/13jue.
multi-stopEthiopian Air
27h 10mJNB-EWR
$1,221
6/10lun.
multi-stopEthiopian Air
21h 40mIAD-CPT
6/30dom.
multi-stopEthiopian Air
31h 30mCPT-IAD
$1,242
6/11mar.
multi-stopDelta
21h 35mIAD-CPT
6/23dom.
multi-stopDelta
24h 28mCPT-IAD
$1,655
6/10lun.
multi-stopUnited Airlines
41h 32mIAD-CPT
6/30dom.
multi-stopUnited Airlines
44h 03mCPT-IAD
$1,750
6/11mar.
multi-stopUnited Airlines
59h 30mLGA-CPT
6/18mar.
multi-stopUnited Airlines
24h 04mCPT-LGA
$1,766
6/8sáb.
multi-stopDelta
20h 51mJFK-CPT
6/16dom.
multi-stopDelta
19h 49mCPT-JFK
$1,926
6/7vie.
multi-stopBritish Airways
28h 00mEWR-JNB
6/10lun.
multi-stopBritish Airways
50h 04mJNB-EWR
$1,926
6/10lun.
multi-stopTurkish Airlines
28h 25mEWR-JNB
7/3mié.
multi-stopTurkish Airlines
34h 15mJNB-EWR
$1,950
6/8sáb.
multi-stopTurkish Airlines
29h 45mEWR-CPT
6/10lun.
multi-stopTurkish Airlines
35h 45mCPT-EWR
$1,958
6/10lun.
multi-stopBritish Airways
31h 40mBWI-CPT
6/27jue.
multi-stopBritish Airways
30h 40mCPT-BWI
$3,768

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Flights to South Africa

Return flight deals:

South Africa - United States

Cabin classes:

$2,510
$6,581
$2,911
$1,177

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