The wild coast of Durban sees visitors flying in from Cape Town and Johannesburg on a daily basis. A choice of airlines service the newly build Durban’s King Shaka Airport, flying between Durban and the other major cities as well as some smaller cities within South Africa.
Visitors can opt for a wide range of classes from first-class to cut-price economy, with all airlines offering convenient online booking services, with payment by credit card or electronic funds transfer and can be booked from anywhere in the world.
Kulula.com, Mango Airlines and 1time Airlines are the three budget airlines that offer low-cost single class flights to Durban from Cape Town International Airport and Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport. These are the two most popular routes from Durban and flights are offered on a daily basis by the low cost airlines with a wide choice of flight times and dates available to accommodate the number of passengers flying these routes.
The low cost airlines do not offer cheap flights to Durban from the smaller destination airports such as Port Elizabeth, East London, George or Bloemfontein airports, and passengers travelling to Durban’s King Shaka International Airport will need to make use of flights offered from these destinations from the other airlines operating on these routes.
Alternatively, passengers can book economy and business class flights to Durban from a wide choice of airlines servicing this airport such as South African Airways, SAA Airlink and British Airways which offer daily flights with regular departures to Durban’s King Shaka International Airport from Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Flights from Durban to the smaller Bloemfontein or George airports are only available from SA Airlink while flights between Durban and Port Elizabeth and East London are only available from SA Express. These destinations are not serviced daily and generally offer only one flight a day to and from these destinations due to the lack of demand. These airlines also do not offer cheap flights and only provide a choice of economy or business class flights to these destinations.
The low-cost airlines, Kulula.com, 1Time Airlines and Mango Airlines provide “no-frills” prices which obviously exclude services such as in-flight meals and beverages. However buy-on-board snacks, light meals and beverages are available for passengers in flight.
Flights to Durban from Johannesburg are approximately 2hrs in duration while Cape Town to Durban takes on average around 2hrs 10 minutes. These flights are available on regular schedules throughout the day, seven days a week from all the domestic airlines in South Africa. Domestic flights check in times open 1 hour prior to boarding and close 30 minutes prior to boarding. Flights from smaller airports are not scheduled as regularly and often as those from major cities such as Cape Town and Johannesburg. Durban’s King Shaka International Airport is located within easy reach of the city centre approximately 30km away.
