✈ SFO → CPT
20H 23M, 10,251 MILES. YOUR ANCESTORS WALKED LESS THAN THIS.
Flight from San Francisco to Cape Town
From SFO (SFO), USA North America → Cape Town International (CPT), South Africa Africa
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.
This flight emits roughly 3.6× the CO₂ of an equivalent train trip and 0.9× a car driven alone over the same distance.