With aviation not being the main purpose of my trip to South Africa earlier this year, I did not do much plane spotting while there. That said, in addition to visiting the amazing museum at Rand Airport, I had a chance to take a few photos at Johannesburg, Nelspruit, and Cape Town airports.
Since I did not venture to any spotting locations away from the terminals, the below should give you a good idea of what you can expect if you want to do some plane spotting at any of the three airports before or after your flight.
Johannesburg Airport Viewing Deck
The first airport in South Africa where I had a chance to do some plane spotting was Johannesburg O. R. Tambo International Airport, the country’s busiest and the continent’s second busiest after Cairo International Airport in Egypt.
I spent about two and a half hours at the “aircraft viewing deck” in the airport’s domestic terminal after visiting the South African Airways Museum. While located behind (not the cleanest) windows, the deck offers good views of a part of the apron, as well as most of the movements, both domestic and international. There seems to be another deck in the international terminal, however, I did not visit that one.
The decks are located landside, i.e., before clearing security and immigration, and so can be used regardless of whether you are flying out of the airport or not.
With this being my first time plane spotting in Africa, essentially every aircraft that passed in front of my eyes was a highlight.
The traffic was dominated by Airlink, which operates a fleet of over 60 Embraers ranging from ERJ-135s and ERJ-140s all the way to E190s and E195s on routes within South Africa and to neighboring countries.
I could also spot a couple of CemAir aircraft during my stay. Similar to Airlink, but smaller, the airline operates domestic and regional flights.
Rather than Embraers, however, it primarily uses Bombardier CRJs of all sizes, including the now-rare CRJ-100s and CRJ-200s. The next time I visit South Africa, I’d love to fly on one of those!
Aircraft operated by other airlines from South Africa were abundant too. Among others, they included Safair, Lift, and, of course, South African Airways.
As far as airlines from other countries are concerned, I was by far the happiest to see a RwandAir 737, which can only be seen in the region. While a bit too small for my liking and lacking full-scale livery, it was also nice to see a FlyNamibia Cessna 425.
Larger aircraft operated by African airlines included an Ethiopian Airlines A350-900 operating a flight from Addis Ababa and a TAAG Angola 777-300ER operating a flight from Luanda.
While far from being unique to Africa, I also spotted a Turkish Airlines 787-9 arriving from Istanbul.
Lastly, there were some aircraft stored in the distance. While taking photos of them was difficult, I at least managed to get a photo of ZS-MFC, a World Cargo preighter A340-600.
Johannesburg Airport from a Bus and a Plane
The day after my “proper” spotting session at Johannesburg Airport, I had a chance to see a few more interesting aircraft at the airport including stored ones from a bus that took my dad and I to the Embraer that we took to Nelspruit and from the aircraft itself after take-off.
Without a doubt the aircraft I was the most excited to see was a Boeing 737-700 wearing a Zambia Airways livery. The aircraft is the airline’s sole aircraft and it wears an Ethiopian registration as it is leased from Ethiopian Airlines.
It was also exciting to see a Lufthansa 747-8 wearing the airline’s new livery up close.
After take-off from runway 21R, it was cool to see four European heavies parked next to each other waiting for their flights back.
What was even more interesting to see, however, were some of the aircraft – A340s in particular – stored at Johannesburg Airport.
Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport: A Quiet Airport in a Beautiful Setting
The second airport in South Africa I did some plane spotting at was Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport, also referred to as Nelspruit Airport, which is a short drive away from Kruger National Park.
Airlink connects the airport multiple times a day with Johannesburg using Embraer ERJ-135s and ERJ-140s, and with Cape Town using both the smaller Embraers, as well as the E190. Safair offers two weekly flights to Johannesburg and three weekly flights to Cape Town, making its 737-800s the largest aircraft currently serving the airport. Federal Air offers flights to the national park and to private reserves.
The only international airline serving the airport at the time of my visit was Fastjet Zimbabwe. In the past, however, it was briefly even served by the German Eurowings Discover from Frankfurt via Windhoek. In November 2024, Air Botswana plans to launch flights to the airport.
I only took some photos before my dad and I took our flight back to Johannesburg. The first location I used was the airport’s Bidvest Lounge, which can be accessed using Priority Pass and offers good views of the apron and runway from its terrace, albeit through windows. The second was an are to the right of the terminal that mostly offered view of landing aircraft with excellent scenery in the background.
The Highlight: Eswatini Air in Cape Town
Lastly, I took some photos in Cape Town before we boarded our flight to Addis Ababa.
While the conditions were far from ideal with fairly dirty windows and the lack of nice light, I was still more than happy to be able to capture an Eswatini Air Embraer ERJ-145. The airline only operates two airframes and only serves South Africa and Zimbabwe outside its home country.
Summary
The main purpose of my trip to South Africa was to enjoy safari with my dad. That said, I managed to squeeze in a bit of aviation including flying a number of products I haven’t reviewed before, visiting an aviation museum, and even doing a bit of plane spotting.
While I didn’t spend more than a few hours at any of the airports we visited, I am glad to have been able to see airlines like Air Zambia and Eswatini Air that are more or less impossible to see outside Africa and to have been able to see a lot of Embraer ERJ-135s, ERJ-140s, and ERJ-145s, which are a rare breed nowadays.
