What it costs to fly from Joburg to Durban right now

It will cost you a minimum of R940 to fly from Johannesburg to Durban and back this March.

This is according to flight price research conducted by TopAuto, though this figure will vary greatly depending on the time and day you choose to book your flight, as well as the airline.

Flight prices are relatively cheap at the moment, though tickets will be considerably more expensive if you plan to travel late in the month, as demand is expected to peak closer to the Easter holiday.

Cheapest flights

TopAuto used Google Flights data to compare the best rates for flights for every major airline in South Africa this month.

Booking on Monday, 9 March, the cheapest days to fly were between Monday and Thursday on for the second and third weeks of the month.

However, prices started to escalate in the last week of March, with a peak rate of R1,180 for tickets purchased for Saturday, 27.

The cheaper weekday flights are to be expected, given that demand for flights is lower on these days, while weekend flights typically come at a substantial premium.

The higher cost towards the end of the month is likely due to the upcoming Easter weekend in the first week of April, as individuals will be taking leave to turn the long weekend into an extended holiday where they can escape to the beaches in KZN.

We filtered our search results to reflect a single adult travelling one-way in economy class from Joburg to Durban on Wednesday, 18 March, which had the lowest advertised price at R470 per ticket.

In contrast, the cheapest rates for Friday 19 and Saturday 20 were R670 and R800, respectively.

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:

The cheapest available option was Lift with a one-way price of just R470, beating FlySafair by R100.

Granted, the most affordable flights are very early in the morning, but the upside is that you’ll get to experience a full day in Durban.

As for the return flight, we looked at the cheapest options for the week starting on Monday 23 March.

This is just before prices start to increase dramatically in the run-up to the Easter weekend.

Interestingly, flights from Durban to Joburg are substantially cheaper than ones travelling the other way, highlighting the demand for flights taking people to the coast over the holiday period.

This time around, the cheapest flight was actually on Saturday 28 March, and not during the week.

This is presumably because airlines are trying to fill seats on return flights to Joburg to make up for the large number of people travelling to Durban that day.

These were the cheapest results for each airline:

This time around, FlySafair had the cheapest rate at R470, while Lift came second at R695.

The trade-off is that these flights are later in the day, though that may be considered a plus if you’re planning to maximise your time in Durban.

SAA and CemAir were noticeably more expensive at R899 and R1,012, and Airlink did not have any listed flight price as of the time of writing this article.

If you were to book the two cheapest flights for the departing and return journeys, the final amount paid would be R940.

To put that in perspective, when we previously did a flight comparison over the December holidays, return ticket prices ranged from a minimum of R1,140 to R3,622, depending on the airline.

March, by comparison, is a low-demand period for travel, though prices will go up closer to the Easter weekend.