Cheap Flights to Africa

If you're looking for a cheap flight to Africa there are several ways to find one. The New York Times had an article recently on the subject and the main gist was "use your frequent flier miles". That advice is useful to those who are lucky enough to have a lot of miles, but it doesn't really help most of us. Flying to Africa is not cheap, but you can get a good deal if you follow some basic tips ...

Use Regional Hubs

• For Southern Africa, check out direct flights to South Africa. There are several budget airline companies in South Africa which operate regionally to countries like Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Madagascar. SAA is about to offer a direct flight from Chicago this May (with a stop in Dakar, Senegal) and airlines usually offer good deals on new routes to promote them.

• For East Africa check out flights into Ethiopia and Kenya. Their national airlines have extensive regional connections. Package tours to Kenya are popular in Germany and England so you can get some great deals by flying through Europe and getting a charter flight from there.

• For West Africa, Ghana is a good country to head to first. There are direct flights to Ghana from the US (on Delta and North American Airlines) and once you're in Accra, you can head to your destination by land or use one of the many regional flights. Delta has also recently launched a direct flight from Atlanta to Lagos (Nigeria).

• For North Africa, direct flights from the US to Morocco and Egypt shouldn't set you back more than $800 - $1000. A popular option for travelers to Egypt these days is to add on a Kenyan safari, and using local airlines for this route may be cheaper than flying direct to Nairobi from the US.

Since flights from Europe to Africa are much more competitively priced and include a lot more routes I usually advocate finding a cheap flight to Europe, (especially during low-season) and then buying a separate ticket from Europe to Africa. However, the London airports have recently hiked up their taxes significantly which could increase your fare by as much as $200. So Amsterdam and Paris are now becoming my European hubs of choice to get to sub-Saharan Africa.

Find out more tips from my article "How to get a cheap flight to Africa", above all, get a good travel agent that specializes in Africa.

If you're traveling independently check out Bootsnall for some good deals. I also like cheaptickets.com to get a good idea of an average fare.

To look into regional flights, see my list of African Airlines.