The end of the year is upon us, and many families are no doubt planning their holiday getaways to the beach, but doing so is likely to cost a substantial amount.
According to research conducted by TopAuto, individuals can expect to pay at least R1,140 to fly from Johannesburg to Durban and back this December.
However, this figure will vary greatly depending on the time and day you choose to book your flight, as well as the airline.
Cheapest flights
TopAuto used Google Flights data to compare the best rates for flights for every major airline in South Africa this festive season.
Booking during the last week of November, the cheapest days to fly were on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for the week starting 1 December.
This is to be expected, as flights tend to be cheaper earlier in the week before demand peaks on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
Our results were based on searches filtered for a single adult travelling one-way in economy class from Joburg to Durban on Monday, 1 December.
These were the best results for FlySafair, Lift, South African Airways (SAA), CemAir, and Airlink.
Note that these figures are accurate at the time of writing and are subject to change based on the time and day you book:
| Airline | Departing Flight time (1 December) | Price |
|---|---|---|
| FlySafair | 19h30 – 20h40 | R570 |
| South African Airways | 15h05 – 16h15 | R698 |
| Lift | 06h00 – 07h05 | R935 |
| Airlink | 18h35 – 19h50 | R1,037 |
| CemAir | 09h30 – 10h45 | R1,057 |
FlySafair offered the cheapest service of any air carrier at R570, though this slot was for a late flight that only gets in at 8:40 pm, so travellers will need to weigh the cost savings against the convenience of an earlier flight.
In contrast, CemAir had the most expensive base price at R1,057, but it also had a much more agreeable 9:30 AM depart time.
It’s important to note that these are not isolated examples, as the five cheapest listings we found for FlySafair were all for evening flights.
As a point of comparison, the cheapest option for Friday, 5 December, was R952 for an SAA flight from 21h20 to 22h30, showing how much more expensive flights can be during peak demand.
Shifting focus to the return flight, we looked at options two weeks later for the week starting on Monday, 15 December, as this is a fairly typical holiday duration.
In this instance, the most affordable flights were on Wednesday, 17 December, while Friday and Sunday had the most expensive rates.
These were the cheapest results for each airline:
| Airline | Departing Flight time (17 December) | Price |
|---|---|---|
| FlySafair | 20h45 – 21h55 | R570 |
| South African Airways | 07h00 – 08h10 | R698 |
| Lift | 14h00 – 15h05 | R1,260 |
| Airlink | 10h55 – 12h05 | R1,469 |
| CemAir | 16h30 – 17h45 | R2,565 |
In this case, there was a massive discrepancy in price between the cheapest and most expensive air carriers.
FlySafair had an identical R570 charge for a flight from King Shaka to O.R. Tambo, but this also had a late arrival time.
SAA appears to have the best offer overall, as it is slightly more expensive than FlySafair while having a reasonable 7:00 AM departure time.
In contrast, CemAir’s lowest offer was R2,565, nearly five times the cheapest available rate.
If a person elected to book both flights with FlySafair, they’d be looking at a travel bill of R1,140.
While these sums were for two one-way flights booked separately, we saw identical figures when booking a return flight for the same days.
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