FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Tight connection at Johannesburg airport?
Old Jun 29, 2004 | 12:43 pm
  #3  
johan rebel
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Join Date: Oct 2000
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You should easily make it, assuming your incoming flight is on time and you don't have to wait ages for your checked luggage. Should things go wrong the next flight is at 2.20 p.m., and you could also take a detour via CPT, departing JNB at 11 a.m.

It is definitely a good idea to try to be first in line at immigrations. If you are flying F or C you should be amongst the first off the plane, which gives you a headstart. Set a brisk pace and you will be the first to reach the terminal. Should you nevertheless find long queues there, select the line adjacent to the desks for SA Passport holders. There are usually fewer SA pax, and when they have been processed pax are often waved over from the nearest "other nationalities" line. Another trick is to use immigrations in the other terminal, but this is contingent on traveling without checked luggage, requires that you know your way around the airport, and are familiar with traffic flows. When a lot of SAA international flights have arrived the one terminal will be busiest, whereas the other will busy when overseas airlines have arrived.

International to the new domestic terminal in a separate building is indeed a longish hike, and unless the indoor passage has been reopened, most of it is outdoors. Use one of the official porters if you have a lot of luggage. Won't cost you much, and they need the money.

There used to be a couple of domestic check-in desks just after international customs, but for some reason they were closed when the new domestic terminal opened. I haven't been to JNB since January, so they may well have opened again in the meantime.

The new domestic terminal is spacious, functional and well laid out. There are surprisingly few jetways, though.

johan
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