Transportation
May 4th, 2006
How to get to South Africa?
Approximately 55 airlines fly to South Africa.
With South African Airlines (SAA) joining Star Alliance from 1 April 2006 Johannesburg and Cape Town become hubs in the world’s largest flight consortium.
Your route plans will depend fundamentally on whether you want to spend time in a game park or not. If so you will want to include a stopover in Johannesburg – either on the way in or out. It is, however, also feasible to choose one of the non-stop flights to Cape Town (see below) and buy a domestic return ticket between Cape Town and Johannesburg to go game viewing. There is also a daily flight from Cape Town to Kruger International adjacent to the Kruger National Park.
For domestic flights we recommend SAA (www.flysaa.com) for price, frequency, quality and punctuality, but there are two no-frills airlines (Kulula.com and 1Time.aero) as well as BA, SA Airlink, SA Express and Nationwide to choose from.
Major Airlines flying to Cape Town (either non-stop or with a stop in Johannesburg)
Malaysian, Qatar, Singapore, Lufthansa (non-stop from Frankfurt), KLM (non-stop from Amsterdam), BA (non-stop from London), SAA (non-stop from Frankfurt, London)
Major Airlines to South Africa (mostly with a change of aircraft in Johannesburg)
From Europe and Arabia
Etihad, Emirates, Qatar, Gulf, Air France, Swiss, Lufthansa, KLM, BA, Iberia, Virgin, TAP, Olympic, SAA (From Heathrow, Frankfurt, Charl de Gaule, Zurich), El Al.
From Asia
Singapore, Malaysian, SAA (from Mumbai, Hong Kong, Perth), Cathay Pacific, Qantas
From South America
Malaysian, Varig, SAA (Sao Paulo)
From North America
United, Delta, SAA (Atlanta, Washington, JFK)
From Africa
Botswana, Namibia, Kenyan, Ethiopian, SAA (From Accra, Dakar, Lagos, Kigali, Kinshasa, Nairobi, Dar Es Salaam, Harare, Lusaka, Luanda, Entebbe, Lilongwe), Egypt air
Transport in South Africa
South Africa, like America, Australia and Brazil, is a country where people fly or drive. Bus companies service the major routes but for a tourist that is not adequate.
Car rental is inevitable in most cases. Al the major companies are represented. Favourites are: Imperial (http://www.imperialcarrental.co.za ) and Europcar (www.europcar.co.za ).
NOTE: normally rental car companies do NOT allow you to take the car cross border.
Entry Filed under: South Africa