The cheapest international flights from South Africa

The cheapest international destination South Africans can fly to is Eswatini, located on the border of Mpumalanga.

According to data from Google Flights, a return ticket for one person will cost approximately R2,700 to fly from Johannesburg to visit the small land-locked nation.

Cheapest international flights to and from South Africa

Flying has always been an expensive way to travel, but ticket prices have shot up over the last few years in correspondence with rising oil prices and the closure of several prominent airlines.

For those who would like to experience another country but have limited funds, South Africa’s neighbours are the obvious solution, as flight costs are primarily influenced by the distance travelled, as well as how popular the route is between two destinations.

Destinations that are less frequented tend to be more expensive as airlines must maintain the same operating margin relative to what it costs to provide the flight.

Conversely, if a route is incredibly busy with limited capacity in terms of aircraft and seats, the price may also be raised to due high demand, as is the case with trips between Cape Town and Joburg.

When it comes to cross-border destinations, Eswatini is the cheapest place for South Africans to fly to, which isn’t too surprising given its close proximity.

To calculate the cost of flights to each of South Africa’s neighbouring countries, we used Google Flights with the filters set for economy class for one person flying from O.R Tambo International in Gauteng.

We also set it as a return ticket with a booking set just over one month from now, from Saturday 17 to 24 August.

These were the travel results for each of South Africa’s six neighbours:

Unsurprisingly, Eswatini is the cheapest since it is the shortest flight, however the same is not true of Botswana and Lesotho, which are both one-hour trips.

Zimbabwe is the second-most affordable destination, likely due to the route’s popularity, and Mozambique is slightly cheaper than Botswana and Lesotho, though all three are in the same ballpark in terms of cost and travel time.

This leaves Namibia as the most expensive option to travel to, which can be explained by the fact that it is the longest trip at a duration of just over two hours and there are relatively few flights between the two nations on a weekly basis.

It should be noted that airline prices are subject to change and the various airlines provide different packages, which can influence the cost.