Australians will soon be able to fly non-stop to Cape Town for the first time, with Qantas announcing a new seasonal service between Sydney and South Africa’s Mother City.
On sale today, the direct flights will take off in October 2027 and run through Cape Town’s summer months until March 2028.
Together with Qantas’ existing direct services from Perth and Sydney to Johannesburg, the new route will give customers more choice when travelling between Australia and South Africa.
Once launched, it will add almost 30,000 seats between Australia and South Africa and is made possible by the introduction of new Qantas 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft arriving in late 2027 as part of the largest fleet renewal in the airline’s history.
The new route comes 75 years after Qantas operated its first scheduled passenger service to South Africa.
In 1952, the Wallaby Route to Johannesburg took 66 hours via Perth, the Cocos Islands and Mauritius.
Next November, customers will be able to leave Sydney in the morning and land in Cape Town the same day.
More than 120,000 Australians visited South Africa in 2025, with demand continuing to grow.
In June this year, Australia overtook Germany to become South Africa’s third-largest overseas source market, with arrivals up 19 per cent year on year.
The route will also bring families and friends closer together, with almost 225,000 South African-born people calling Australia home and around a quarter of them residing in New South Wales.
“Cape Town is a true bucket-list city and Australia’s appetite to visit has never been stronger,” said Cam Wallace, Qantas International CEO.
“Each year, tens of thousands of customers use our existing Johannesburg services to connect to Cape Town through our partner airlines Airlink, so we know there’s strong demand for a non-stop service.
“The arrival of our new 787s as part of our historic fleet renewal gives us the flexibility to grow our international network in places we know our customers want to travel, while also creating new opportunities for our people.”
Key route information:
- Sydney (SYD) to Cape Town (CPT) will operate as QF89, with the inaugural flight departing on 19 October 2027 and operating until 24 March 2028.
- The route will operate on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner three times per week on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.
- QF89 is scheduled to depart Sydney at 9:15 and arrive in Cape Town at 14:40 (approx. flight time 14 hours 25 minutes).
- Economy return fares start from $2,470
