FLIGHT HOP.fyi

✈ SFO → CPT

20H 23M IN ECONOMY = A FELONY AGAINST YOURSELF. UPGRADE.

Flight time
20h 23m
Distance
10,251 mi
Or
16,498 km
Jet lag
9h

Flight from San Francisco to Cape Town

From SFO (SFO), USA North America  →  Cape Town International (CPT), South Africa Africa

↔ Flying the other way? Cape Town → San Francisco

How long is the flight from San Francisco to Cape Town?

A nonstop flight from San Francisco (SFO) to Cape Town (CPT) takes about 20 hours 23 minutes, covering a great-circle distance of 10,251 miles (16,498 km). Actual scheduled time varies by airline, routing, and wind — expect ±15 to 30 minutes from this estimate.

Avg flight time

20h 23m

Nonstop, scheduled

Distance

10,251 mi

16,498 km · great-circle

Avg speed

809 km/h

Door-to-door including taxi

Time zones & jet lag

San Francisco timezone

UTC-7

America/Los_Angeles

Cape Town timezone

UTC+2

Africa/Johannesburg

Time difference

+9h

9 hours ahead

Jet lag (rough)

~9d

Eastward — worse

CO₂ footprint per passenger

Economy class, single passenger. Source: DEFRA 2024 averages.

✈ Flight 2442 kg CO₂
🚗 Car (alone) 2821 kg CO₂
🚆 Train 676 kg CO₂

This flight emits roughly 3.6× the CO₂ of an equivalent train trip and 0.9× a car driven alone over the same distance.

Flights from San Francisco

Nearest destinations

Long-haul from San Francisco

More flights to Africa

Flights to Cape Town

Nearest origins

Long-haul to Cape Town

More flights from North America