South African Airways (IATA SA) is a full-service carrier based in South Africa, a member of the Star Alliance alliance. Across the corridors catalogued here it flies 26 routes from African airports, reaching 21 destinations in 19 countries, with home hubs at Cape Town (CPT), Durban (DUR), Johannesburg (JNB). Most of these are intra-Africa and Gulf-hub business corridors. Its standard checked-baggage baseline is 23 kg, lifted by about 5 kg on diaspora and migrant-worker corridors. In its home African markets brand strength rates 7/10.
At a glance
26 catalogued corridors on this site are flown by South African Airways (SA), a full-service carrier based in South Africa and a member of Star Alliance, with a 23 kg checked-baggage baseline. 4 of those corridors are flagged in our route file as labour-migration or diaspora routes.
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| IATA code | SA |
| Home country | South Africa |
| Alliance | Star Alliance |
| Carrier type | full-service |
| Checked-baggage baseline | 23 kg |
| Diaspora / migrant baggage uplift | +5 kg |
| Hajj / Umrah charter service | No |
| Brand strength (home markets) | 7/10 |
The 23 kg figure describes what South African Airways advertises as standard in economy, not what any given ticket carries. Discounted fare families sit beneath it, and those are disproportionately the fares that set record-low cached prices. The allowance printed on the issued itinerary is the only one the check-in desk will honour.
Our carrier file records a diaspora and migrant-worker baggage uplift of about +5 kg for South African Airways. Read it as a corridor-specific promotion: uplifts of this kind attach to nominated routes and fare families, are rarely honoured on a codeshare or interline segment operated by another airline, and usually exclude the deepest-discount buckets. It is real, but it has to be confirmed against your own booking class before you pack to it.
Routes South African Airways flies from Africa — 26 corridors
26 catalogued corridors carry South African Airways in our route file, reaching 21 destinations and totalling about 529 weekly departures, with block times from 1.0 h to 15.5 h. 4 of them are flagged as labour-migration or diaspora corridors in our route file. This is the African-outbound catalogue, not the airline’s global network.
| Route | Freq/wk | Block (h) | Market low (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Johannesburg (JNB) → Cape Town (CPT) | ~140 | ~2.2 | — |
| Johannesburg (JNB) → London (LHR) | ~35 | ~11.5 | — |
| Cape Town (CPT) → Johannesburg (JNB) | ~35 | ~2.0 | $132 |
| Durban (DUR) → Johannesburg (JNB) | ~35 | ~1.5 | $77 |
| Johannesburg (JNB) → Nairobi (NBO) | ~35 | ~4.0 | — |
| Johannesburg (JNB) → Dubai (DXB) | ~28 | ~8.2 | — |
| Johannesburg (JNB) → Harare (HRE) | ~21 | ~1.7 | — |
| Johannesburg (JNB) → Addis Ababa (ADD) | ~21 | ~5.5 | $591 |
| Harare (HRE) → Johannesburg (JNB) | ~14 | ~1.5 | $178 |
| Johannesburg (JNB) → Lusaka (LUN) | ~14 | ~1.8 | $464 |
| Johannesburg (JNB) → Lagos (LOS) | ~14 | ~6.0 | — |
| Johannesburg (JNB) → Dar es Salaam (DAR) | ~14 | ~3.5 | — |
| Johannesburg (JNB) → Maputo (MPM) | ~14 | ~1.0 | $205 |
| Johannesburg (JNB) → Frankfurt (FRA) | ~14 | ~10.5 | — |
| Johannesburg (JNB) → Windhoek (WDH) | ~14 | ~1.5 | $321 |
| Luanda (LAD) → Johannesburg (JNB) | ~11 | ~4.0 | — |
| Johannesburg (JNB) → Entebbe (EBB) | ~10 | ~4.3 | — |
| Johannesburg (JNB) → Victoria Falls (VFA) | ~7 | ~1.5 | $265 |
| Cape Town (CPT) → London (LHR) | ~7 | ~11.5 | $456 |
| Johannesburg (JNB) → Kinshasa (FIH) | ~7 | ~4.0 | — |
The USD market-low column is the cheapest fare our Travelpayouts cache has seen on that corridor across all carriers, not a South African Airways-only price; use it as a floor when comparing.
Passenger compensation rights
South African Airways touches EU/EEA airports, so a 3 h+ delay or cancellation on a flight departing the EU is claimable under EU261 regardless of your passport — eligibility follows the operating carrier and the departure airport, not nationality.
| Regime | When it applies | Remedy for a long delay / cancellation |
|---|---|---|
| EU261 | Any departure from an EU/EEA airport (CDG, FRA, AMS, BRU, LIS, MAD, ATH), any airline. | €250 (≤1,500 km), €400 (1,500–3,500 km) or €600 (>3,500 km) for a 3 h+ arrival delay or a cancellation within the airline’s control, plus meals and a hotel where needed. |
| UK261 | Departures from a UK airport (LHR, MAN), any airline. | £220, £350 or £520 by distance, mirroring EU261, for a 3 h+ delay or cancellation within the airline’s control. |
| US DOT | Flights to or from the United States. | No cash compensation for delays; an automatic refund is due for cancellations and significant schedule changes you decline (US DOT 2024 rule). |
| Montreal Convention 1999 | Any international itinerary — baggage and delay losses. | Compensation for lost, damaged or delayed baggage and provable losses caused by delay, up to about 1,288 SDR per passenger. |
When South African Airways is the right choice
26 catalogued corridors is the practical scope of this decision: South African Airways is worth choosing where it flies your corridor nonstop, where its 23 kg baseline beats the alternative, and where Star Alliance earning matters to you. Compare the block-time column, not only the price column.
You should choose South African Airways for its included 23 kg allowance and through-checked bags on connecting itineraries; diaspora and migrant-worker travellers gain from the ~5 kg extra-baggage uplift; frequent flyers earn and burn across the Star Alliance network. Compare it against the other carriers on each corridor in the route table above before booking South African Airways.
The honest counter-case first. A single carrier is rarely the right answer on every corridor, and on a route where South African Airways connects while a competitor flies nonstop, the competitor usually wins on total elapsed time even at a higher fare. Compare the block-time column, not just the price column, on each corridor page — the difference between a nonstop and a one-stop routing on this site’s long-haul corridors is regularly eight hours or more.
FAQ
What is South African Airways’s checked baggage allowance? South African Airways’s checked-baggage baseline is 23 kg, normally included in its standard fares.
Is South African Airways part of an airline alliance? South African Airways is a member of the Star Alliance alliance.
What kind of airline is South African Airways? South African Airways (SA) is a full-service carrier from South Africa.
How many routes does South African Airways fly from Africa? South African Airways operates 26 routes from African airports catalogued here — see the list above; each links to a route guide.
Can I claim compensation on a South African Airways flight? Yes, on flights departing the EU/EEA. A 3 h+ arrival delay or cancellation within South African Airways’s control pays €250–€600 by distance under EU261, whatever your nationality.
What is the cheapest route South African Airways flies from Africa? In our fare cache the lowest market fare on a South African Airways corridor is about $77 on Durban–Johannesburg (DUR-JNB); prices move with season, so check live fares before booking.
Sources
4 primary sources cited on this page are regulator and government material, not secondary summaries. Each is listed with what it actually governs, so a claim on this page can be checked against the instrument it comes from. Where a value is missing from our own files we leave the cell blank rather than estimate it.
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EU261 — Regulation 261/2004 — the consolidated text of Regulation 261/2004 itself — the compensation amounts, the distance bands and the extraordinary-circumstances defence.
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UK261 — UK Civil Aviation Authority — the UK regulator’s passenger pages, which set out the UK261 amounts and the complaint escalation route after the airline’s own reply.
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US DOT — air-consumer protections — US DOT’s air-consumer pages — the automatic-refund rule, and the absence of any statutory delay compensation.
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AirHelp — flight-compensation claims — a commercial claims service, cited as the industry explainer alongside the regulator rather than instead of it.
The sourcing rule here is simple: a regulator’s own text for anything with legal effect, and a commercial explainer only as a secondary reading beside it. Amounts stay denominated as the instrument denominates them — euro, pound, Canadian dollar, SDR — even though every fare on this site is quoted in USD, because a converted tariff is a moving number pretending to be a fixed one.
Related
4 related pages follow. Each is linked because it shares an endpoint, a carrier, a country or an audience cluster with this one — the annotations say what each adds, so the ones that do not apply to your trip can be skipped.
- Cape Town airport (CPT) — Cape Town International, South Africa: 7 catalogued departure corridors and 1 arrival corridor.
- Durban airport (DUR) — King Shaka International, South Africa: 4 catalogued departure corridors and 0 arrival corridors.
- Flights to Brazil — country landing page: 6 catalogued corridors from African airports, carriers, visa row and the USD fare floor we have on file.
- Flights to DR Congo — country landing page: 5 catalogued corridors from African airports, carriers, visa row and the USD fare floor we have on file.
These links come out of the data rather than an editorial wish-list. Two pages are connected when they share an airport, a carrier, a destination country or an audience cluster, which means the list is stable as the catalogue grows and does not drift toward whatever term happens to rank. Skip what does not match your trip.