Distance between Durban and Johannesburg (straight line)
The straight-line distance between Durban and Johannesburg, both in South Africa, is 501 km (311 miles), as the crow flies, measured from one city centre to the other. It is the shortest path over the Earth's surface; any road between them is longer.
Straight-line distance
501 km
311 miles · straight line
Heading from Durban
323° (northwest)
initial compass bearing to Johannesburg
Flight time estimate, not a booking
~40 min
at about 800 km/h, in the air only
Straight-line (great-circle) distance, as the crow flies. The road distance is longer.
DurbanJohannesburgThe line is the great circle: straight over the globe, curved on a flat map.
Measure your own two places
Pick any two cities, addresses or coordinates in the calculator, or start from where you are standing. It gives the same straight-line distance, in miles and kilometres.
Durban to Johannesburg at a glance
- Straight-line distance
- 501 km (311 miles), as the crow flies
- Heading from Durban
- 323° (northwest) to Johannesburg
- Heading from Johannesburg
- 145° (southeast) to Durban
- Midpoint
- 28.0382° S, 29.5110° E, halfway along the straight line
- Flight time estimate, not a booking
- About 40 min in the air at a cruising speed of 800 km/h along the straight line. Take-off, landing, the real flight path and any stops add more.
- Durban, South Africa
- 29.8579° S, 31.0292° E (city centre)
- Johannesburg, South Africa
- 26.2023° S, 28.0436° E (city centre)
Nearby city pairs
Other distances from Durban
- Durban to Bloemfontein473 km
- Durban to Pretoria536 km
- Durban to Gqeberha685 km
- Durban to Cape Town1,272 km
Other distances from Johannesburg
- Johannesburg to Pretoria53 km
- Johannesburg to Bloemfontein371 km
- Johannesburg to Gqeberha894 km
- Johannesburg to Cape Town1,262 km
- Johannesburg to Cairo6,266 km
- Johannesburg to Dubai6,409 km
Questions
Is 501 km (311 miles) the driving distance from Durban to Johannesburg?
No. 501 km (311 miles) is the straight-line distance between the two city centres, as the crow flies. A road route is always longer, because roads bend around terrain and water, and MapGO does not measure driving distance or travel time.
How is the distance between Durban and Johannesburg measured?
Along a great circle: the shortest line over the Earth's surface, from Durban's centre (29.8579° S, 31.0292° E) to Johannesburg's (26.2023° S, 28.0436° E). This is what "straight-line distance" and "as the crow flies" mean on a globe. On a flat map the line can look curved.
How accurate is this distance?
Within about 0.5% for the two centre points. The figure treats the Earth as a sphere (the haversine formula), while the real Earth is slightly flattened, which shifts a long straight-line distance by up to about 0.5%. Measuring from another part of either city changes it more, since a large city can be tens of kilometres across.
Computed by MapGO from each city's centre point (GeoNames) with the haversine formula. All distances on this page are straight lines over the Earth's surface, not road distances.