Major Airports in South Africa

South Africa runs the busiest and most developed aviation network on the African continent, anchored by a dominant hub at O.R. Tambo International in Johannesburg and a strong second gateway at Cape Town. Between them the two airports handle the overwhelming majority of the country’s international and long-haul flights, while a web of domestic and regional airports links the major cities with tourism gateways to the Kruger National Park, the Garden Route and the KwaZulu-Natal coast. The market is served by a mix of the relaunched national carrier South African Airways, the regional specialist Airlink and the fast-growing low-cost airline FlySafair, which has become the biggest domestic operator since the collapse of Comair and its kulula brand in 2022.

Below we map and rank South Africa’s airports by the number of nonstop destinations each one serves, drawn from live route data on AirportRoutes. We rank by regularly-served destinations — routes flown often enough to count as scheduled service — rather than raw nonstop totals, which can overstate seasonal and charter-heavy fields. The figures come from observed flight data (a large sample rather than a complete published timetable), so treat them as a guide to relative connectivity, not official totals.

Which South African airports have direct flights to the US?

Nonstop flying between South Africa and the United States is concentrated at the two biggest airports. United Airlines operates nonstop service from its Newark hub to both Johannesburg (O.R. Tambo) and Cape Town, while Delta Air Lines links Atlanta with Johannesburg; Delta has also run a seasonal Atlanta–Cape Town route. Together these are the only scheduled nonstop links between South Africa and North America.

No other South African airport has scheduled nonstop flights to the US. Durban, the country’s third-busiest airport, is largely domestic with a handful of regional and Middle Eastern links, so travellers from other South African cities reach the United States by connecting through Johannesburg or Cape Town, or via a major hub in Europe or the Gulf such as London, Frankfurt, Doha or Dubai. South African Airways, a Star Alliance member, also feeds US-bound passengers onto partner airlines from its Johannesburg base.

A closer look at South Africa’s main airports

✈️ Johannesburg — O.R. Tambo (JNB)

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O.R. Tambo International Airport lies about 22 km east of central Johannesburg, in Kempton Park, and is the largest and busiest airport in South Africa — and in most years the busiest in all of Africa. Named after the anti-apartheid leader and ANC president O.R. Tambo, it is the main hub of South African Airways and Airlink and a major base for FlySafair, with a large international terminal handling long-haul flights to Europe, the Middle East, Asia, the Americas and across Africa.

Serving Greater Johannesburg and the economic heartland of Gauteng, JNB reaches around 74 regularly-served nonstop destinations — a genuine intercontinental network that no other South African airport comes close to matching. It is one of only two airports in the country with scheduled nonstop flights to the United States.

Main airlines: Airlink, South African Airways, FlySafair, CemAir, Turkish Airlines. See the full route map for JNB on AirportRoutes →

🏔️ Cape Town (CPT)

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Cape Town International Airport sits about 20 km east of the city centre, on the Cape Flats beneath Table Mountain, and is South Africa’s second-busiest airport. It is a major international gateway in its own right, with a steady stream of long-haul flights from Europe, the Middle East and North America drawn by Cape Town’s status as one of the world’s leading leisure destinations, and it has repeatedly been voted the best airport in Africa.

Serving Cape Town and the Western Cape, CPT reaches about 30 regularly-served nonstop destinations, including roughly 13 intercontinental routes. Alongside Johannesburg it is one of only two South African airports with nonstop flights to the United States.

Main airlines: Airlink, FlySafair, CemAir, Kenya Airways, LIFT, South African Airways. See the full route map for CPT on AirportRoutes →

🏖️ Durban — King Shaka (DUR)

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King Shaka International Airport opened in 2010 at La Mercy, about 35 km north of central Durban, replacing the old Durban International Airport in time for the FIFA World Cup. Named after the Zulu king Shaka, it serves the city of Durban and the holiday coast of KwaZulu-Natal — one of South Africa’s biggest domestic leisure markets.

Serving Durban and KwaZulu-Natal, DUR reaches about 13 regularly-served nonstop destinations — predominantly domestic routes to Johannesburg, Cape Town and the other main cities, plus a small number of regional and Middle Eastern links, including Emirates’ service to Dubai. It is the country’s third-busiest airport, well behind the big two.

Main airlines: FlySafair, Airlink, CemAir, LIFT, South African Airways. See the full route map for DUR on AirportRoutes →

🦁 Nelspruit — Kruger Mpumalanga (MQP)

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Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport lies near Mbombela (Nelspruit) in the province of Mpumalanga, and is the main air gateway to the southern Kruger National Park and the surrounding private game reserves. Its terminal, built in a distinctive thatched African style, is geared squarely towards safari tourism.

Serving Mbombela and the Kruger region, MQP reaches around 6 regularly-served nonstop destinations, combining domestic links to Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban with regional flights to nearby safari and beach destinations such as Victoria Falls, Livingstone and Vilankulo.

Main airlines: Airlink, FlySafair, Fastjet. See the full route map for MQP on AirportRoutes →

🛫 Lanseria (HLA)

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Lanseria International Airport sits northwest of Johannesburg, between the city and Pretoria, and acts as the metro area’s convenient second airport. Privately run and quicker to get in and out of than O.R. Tambo, it has built a busy domestic low-cost business while also serving as a major base for private and business aviation.

Serving north-western Johannesburg and Pretoria, HLA reaches about 5 regularly-served nonstop destinations, all domestic — frequent low-cost links to Cape Town, Durban, George, East London and Gqeberha. It carries no scheduled international flights, but its location and speed make it popular with business travellers.

Main airlines: FlySafair. See the full route map for HLA on AirportRoutes →

🌿 George (GRJ)

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George Airport is the gateway to the Garden Route, the scenic stretch of coast and lakes in the southern Western Cape that takes in Knysna, Plettenberg Bay and the Outeniqua mountains. Small but busy in the holiday seasons, it handles a steady flow of leisure travellers and second-home owners.

Serving George and the Garden Route, GRJ reaches around 4 regularly-served nonstop destinations, all domestic — chiefly links to Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Lanseria flown by FlySafair, Airlink and CemAir.

Main airlines: FlySafair, Airlink, CemAir. See the full route map for GRJ on AirportRoutes →

🌹 Bloemfontein — Bram Fischer (BFN)

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Bram Fischer International Airport serves Bloemfontein, the capital of the Free State and the judicial capital of South Africa, home to the Supreme Court of Appeal. Named after the anti-apartheid advocate Bram Fischer, it is a compact airport handling mostly domestic business and government traffic in the centre of the country.

Serving Bloemfontein and the Free State, BFN reaches about 4 regularly-served nonstop destinations, all domestic — primarily links to Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and George operated by CemAir, Airlink and FlySafair.

Main airlines: CemAir, Airlink, FlySafair. See the full route map for BFN on AirportRoutes →

🐘 Gqeberha — Chief Dawid Stuurman (PLZ)

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Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport — renamed in 2021 from Port Elizabeth Airport — serves the coastal city of Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) in the Eastern Cape. Unusually close to the city centre and the beachfront, it is the main airport for the western half of the Eastern Cape, with the Addo Elephant National Park and the beaches of Algoa Bay on its doorstep.

Serving Gqeberha and the western Eastern Cape, PLZ reaches around 4 regularly-served nonstop destinations, all domestic — frequent links to Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Lanseria flown by FlySafair, Airlink and South African Airways.

Main airlines: FlySafair, Airlink, South African Airways, CemAir. See the full route map for PLZ on AirportRoutes →

🌊 East London — King Phalo (ELS)

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King Phalo Airport — renamed in 2021 from East London Airport — serves the coastal city of East London in the Eastern Cape, near the mouth of the Buffalo River. It is the smaller of the province’s two main airports, handling domestic business and leisure traffic for the eastern coast and the motor industry around the city’s port.

Serving East London and the eastern Eastern Cape, ELS reaches about 4 regularly-served nonstop destinations, all domestic — chiefly links to Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Lanseria operated by FlySafair, CemAir and Airlink.

Main airlines: FlySafair, CemAir, Airlink. See the full route map for ELS on AirportRoutes →

South Africa’s other regional airports

Beyond the busiest few, South Africa has a string of smaller airports that keep the regions connected, most of them flown by Airlink and CemAir on thin domestic routes — usually a single regular link, often to Johannesburg.

In the Northern Cape, Kimberley (KIM) — the historic diamond city — and Upington (UTN), known for one of the longest runways in the southern hemisphere out on the edge of the Kalahari, each keep a couple of regular domestic routes, while Sishen (SIS) exists mainly to serve the giant iron-ore mining operations around Kathu. In KwaZulu-Natal, the provincial capital Pietermaritzburg (PZB), the industrial port city of Richards Bay (RCB) and the south-coast resort strip of Margate (MGH) each run a regular hop to Johannesburg.

Elsewhere, Mthatha (UTT) in the former Transkei region of the Eastern Cape and Polokwane (PTG), the capital of Limpopo in the far north, round out the network with their own links to the Johannesburg hub. Together these airports show how thoroughly South Africa’s domestic network funnels through Gauteng — for most of the country, the journey almost anywhere starts with a flight to Johannesburg.

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