Book a flight from Johannesburg to London with Etihad Airways, as they are currently offering the lowest rates for this route. While you are visiting, why not explore Windsor Castle, the largest occupied castle in the world.
*This is not an offer, but merely a snapshot of cheapest airfares as we saw them. There was very limited availability (don't expect it to be on every date, it was the cheapest we could find) when we checked & prices may have increased already. Click through the link on the price to check whether the price is still available.
compare the prices of all airlines flying the route using the airline price comparison tool on the left & book the cheapest.
take part in our unique travel voucher system. Our readers are our writers. Email us a write-up of your flight from CPT to London & we'll send you a travel voucher (doing a write-up also means that you have a record of your wonderful holiday).
Flight Specials
2013-06-05 : Fly to London from Cape Town from R8618* with Emirates.
*The more time that has elapsed since the airfare was published, the greater the chance that it has changed.
Direct flights from Cape Town to London
South African Airways stopped flying direct CPT-London flights in August 2012. If you want to fly direct from Cape Town to London, only British Airways flies the route throughout the year, with Virgin Atlantic usually active over South Africa's summer. A non-stop CPT-LHR flight takes some 12 hours to cover the 9648km.
Cape Town International Airport (CPT) to
London Heathrow Airport (LHR)
1 stop flights from Cape Town to London
Even though these airlines stop on the way, they are often cheaper than the direct flights to London. Keep an eye on flight durations, as 1-stops are (much) longer than direct flights. We had a look at the airfares of the airlines on a specific date and ordered them from cheapest to most expensive (this will have changed since).
Iberia Airline suspended flights from JNB from 1 May 2012
Business class from Cape Town to London
Business class travellers usually want to travel non-stop, which would mean that your options are either British Airways or Virgin Atlantic (SAA no longer flies the route).
Overland
2 Feb 2013
Paul Brace & Philip Young launched their attempt to break the world record for driving non-stop from Cape Town to London, in a 2 cylinder 875cc Fiat Panda (modified with a re-positioned engine air intake, an additional fuel tank and sump guards), on the 2nd February 2013. They started from the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town, and drive through Botswana, Ethiopia, Libya, ferried across the Med from Tunisia to Marseille, went through the Channel Tunnel and then finished at Marble Arch in London. Their total time of 10 days, 13. 5 hours broke the previous record by more than a day.
2010
Steve MacKenney & Chris Rawlings set a record of travelling from Cape Town to London by car in 11 days, 14 hours and 11 minutes.
1983
Brigadier John Hemsley & his wife set the Cape Town to London overland record whilst driving a Range Rover.
News
28 Mar 2013
British Airways reduces its Cape Town to London flight frequency to daily.
29 Jan 2013
Nick and Joanne shoot footage which make it seem like they're walking from Cape Town to London. They start at the beach with Table Mountain in the background, then walk on the top of Table Mountain, Cape Agulhas, Sondags River, Oudtshoorn, Die Hel, Karas, Fish River Canyon (Namibia), Kolmanskop, Tropic of Capricorn, Sandwich Harbour, Otjitotongwe, Ugab River, Sossusvlei, Marienfluss, Moremi Game Reserve, Chobe National Park (Botswana), Praia do Tofo (Mozambique), Lake Malawi, Mount Mulanje (Malawi), Iringa (Tanzania), Masaai Mara (Kenya), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Qondar, Pyramids of Meroe, Nubian Desert, Wadi Halfa (Sudan), Luxor (Egypt), White Desert, Pyramids of Giza, Wadi Rum (Jordan), Petra, Bosra (Syria), Krak des Chevaliers, Palmyra, Cappadocia, Istanbul (Turkey), Neuschwanstein Castle (Germany) and London.
28 Oct 2012
British Airways doubles the number of CPT-LHR flights from 7 to 14 a week, until March 2013. BA's extra seasonal service between CPT - LHR flights has had a schedule change, and
BA42 is now scheduled to leave Cape Town at 22h10 & arrive in London at 07h50.
18 Oct 2012
Virgin Atlantic resumes non-stop CPT-London flights: “The United Kingdom (UK) is by a long way South Africa’s (SA) biggest tourism market, having attracted a total of 420 483 tourist arrivals to South Africa in 2011. Encouragingly this has increased by 5.5% in the first six months of this year. As the UK market shows signs of recovery from the global recession, airlift capacity and bringing passengers to SA from the UK is critical. We’re extremely excited about Virgin Atlantic’s launch of the direct seasonal route between London and Cape Town, which we are confident will be successful, operating in a critical market, which will contribute considerably to tourist arrivals to SA. Cape Town was named the number one destination in the world in 2011 by the readers of top travel website, Trip Advisor. So we are very excited about this direct route into one of the world’s best destinations.” said Thulani Nzima, Chief Executive at SA Tourism.
15 Aug 2012
South African Airways quits flying direct flights from Cape Town to London, saying that it would have a positive impact on SAA's bottom line. Theunis Potgieter, South African Airways' general manager (commercial) said that “SAA is re-deploying its capacity to routes experiencing expanding demand, as part of our larger strategy for growth and increased efficiency within the airline. A thorough analysis of the route made it clear that we could use our aircraft more profitably. Anyone (else) who has booked a flight between Cape Town and London after August 15th will be re-routed via Johannesburg at no additional charge.”
1 May 2012
Iberia Airlines suspends its flights from Johannesburg (and thus its codeshare from Cape Town).
31 Oct 2011
British Airways increases its Cape Town - London flight frequency from 13 a week to double-daily for the summer. It is switching from using a Boeing 777 to a Boeing 747-400, meaning it will be the only carrier offering a first class service on the route.
1 Jun 2011
Qatar Airline stops flying to London Gatwick Airport.
3 Jun 2009
Air Namibia suspends its flights between Windhoek & London.
The time difference between Cape Town (South Africa) and London (UK) varies from being 1 hour ahead in the South African winter (when the UK has daylight saving) to 2 hours and in the South African summer.
Cape Town
South Africa
GMT + 2
London
UK
GMT + 1 until Sunday 25 October 2009 01:00 GMT
GMT + 0 from Sunday 25 October 2009 01:00 GMT