Qantas to Fly Non-Stop From Sydney to Cape Town: Three Flights a Week on the Boeing 787‑9, From October 2027 to March 2028

Until now, anyone flying from Australia to Cape Town had to change planes along the way. That ends in October 2027, when Qantas opens the first non-stop link between the two. The new seasonal service from Sydney is on sale now and runs through the South African summer until March 2028.

Same Day in Cape Town

Flight QF89 is scheduled to operate from 19 October 2027 to 24 March 2028, on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. It leaves Sydney at 09:15 and lands in Cape Town at 14:40 the same day, after around 14 hours and 25 minutes in the air. Economy return fares start at 2,470 Australian dollars; Qantas has not named Business Class fares in its announcement.

The aircraft is the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. The route depends on new aircraft of this type, which join the Qantas fleet from late 2027 as part of the largest fleet renewal in the airline’s history. The flights add almost 30,000 seats between Australia and South Africa, on top of the existing Qantas services from Perth and Sydney to Johannesburg.

66 Hours in 1952

The announcement comes with a good piece of history: Qantas operated its first scheduled passenger service to South Africa 75 years before this route starts. In 1952, the Wallaby Route to Johannesburg took 66 hours, by way of Perth, the Cocos Islands and Mauritius.

The demand is there. Each year, tens of thousands of Qantas customers already reach Cape Town by connecting in Johannesburg on its partner Airlink, says Cam Wallace, CEO of Qantas International, who calls Cape Town “a true bucket-list city”. More than 120,000 Australians visited South Africa in 2025, and in June 2026 Australia overtook Germany as South Africa’s third-largest overseas source market.

Qantas, Sydney–Cape Town, QF89, three times a week from 19 October 2027 · qantas.com

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Roger Hohl

Roger Hohl has been at the helm of Luxvisor since 2006. From his base in Switzerland he travels to test what the luxury travel industry promises, from the seat at 40,000 feet to the last course of a tasting menu, and writes about it with an independent eye.