Flights Johannesburg – South Africa Accessible.
Until the advent of the extra long-range aircraft of the 1990’s, it was necessary for those traveling from New York to Johannesburg, for example, to make at least two stops: one in London, and one in an African capital like Nairobi in Kenya or Lagos in Nigeria (although the capital of Nigeria is now Abuja, trivia fans, the main airport is still in Lagos, further down in the country and located near the coast of the country).
So what was the benefit of non-stop flying from New York to the South African capital as compared to the bad old days of hopping from capital to capital? While it’s true that passengers did not get a chance to buy Nigerian or Kenyan souvenirs, and were unable to quaff a brew at the London Heathrow airport, they were able to get to their destination within 24 hours. In fact, the flight from New York to Johannesburg today takes only about 15 hours. In the past, the flight to London took six hours, then the flight to Lagos another 8 hours, and another 7 hours from Lagos to Johannesburg.
Flights to Johannesburg from other cities were even more difficult. If one lived in Butte, Montana, for example, it took forever and a day to get to Johannesburg. One had to drive from Butte to Redding, California, and fly from Redding to Monterrey, California on the Pacific Ocean. From Monterrey, one had to take a bus or a train to San Francisco airport, and from there fly through Toledo and Cleveland, sometimes stopping in Cincinnati and Atlanta, before finally getting to New York and being able to join the aforementioned flight to Johannesburg, with stops in London and a further stop in either Lagos or Nairobi. What a pain! It’s surprising that anyone was willing to do such a long trek—it surprises not only me, but everyone in my family and my neighborhood as well.
So flights to Johannesburg could be very interesting to make in the time before jets came along. Let’s see what it was like in the 1930’s, before the advent of the DC4 and the 707. At that time, you had to take a DC3, which could be had from New York if you were willing to land in Gander, then in Greenland, Iceland, Ireland and London. At that time, you took nearly 24 hours, including refueling stops, to make that portion of the trip. From that point, you still had three days to go, if you were lucky, before arriving in South Africa.