Travellers reach United Arab Emirates from 14 African airports on 15 catalogued routes, flown by EgyptAir, Emirates, South African Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Etihad Airways, RwandAir. This corridor sits in the intra-Africa + Gulf hub transit corridor. The tables below list every catalogued route, the carriers on it, and — where our cache has data — the lowest USD fare seen; all fares are quoted in USD, with on-the-ground spending in AED.
Routes to United Arab Emirates
15 catalogued corridors reach the United Arab Emirates from 14 African airports, flown by 8 carriers and totalling about 179 weekly departures, with block times from 3.5 h to 10.0 h. 1 of them run fewer than seven times a week, the line where a cancellation starts costing days rather than hours.
| Route | Carriers | Freq/wk | Block (h) | Market low (USD) | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cairo (CAI) → Dubai (DXB) | MS, EK | ~35 | ~3.5 | — | guide |
| Johannesburg (JNB) → Dubai (DXB) | EK, SA | ~28 | ~8.2 | — | guide |
| Addis Ababa (ADD) → Dubai (DXB) | ET, EK | ~14 | ~4.0 | $200 | guide |
| Lagos (LOS) → Dubai (DXB) | EK | ~14 | ~7.8 | $660 | guide |
| Nairobi (NBO) → Dubai (DXB) | EK, KQ | ~21 | ~5.0 | $344 | guide |
| Dar es Salaam (DAR) → Dubai (DXB) | EK | ~7 | ~5.5 | — | guide |
| Abuja (ABV) → Dubai (DXB) | EK | ~7 | ~8.0 | $395 | guide |
| Casablanca (CMN) → Dubai (DXB) | AT, EK | ~7 | ~7.5 | — | guide |
| Cape Town (CPT) → Dubai (DXB) | EK | ~7 | ~9.5 | $676 | guide |
| Entebbe (EBB) → Dubai (DXB) | EK | ~7 | ~5.5 | $359 | guide |
| Johannesburg (JNB) → Abu Dhabi (AUH) | EY | ~7 | ~8.4 | — | guide |
| Kigali (KGL) → Dubai (DXB) | EK, WB | ~7 | ~6.0 | — | guide |
| Dakar (DSS) → Dubai (DXB) | EK | ~7 | ~9.0 | $666 | guide |
| Durban (DUR) → Dubai (DXB) | EK | ~7 | ~10.0 | $428 | guide |
| Harare (HRE) → Dubai (DXB) | EK | ~4 | ~9.0 | $504 | guide |
1 of these corridors runs fewer than seven times a week, which is the line where disruption stops being an inconvenience. Below daily frequency, a cancellation can mean days rather than hours, and re-accommodation onto another airline requires an interline or codeshare agreement rather than goodwill. If your dates into United Arab Emirates are fixed, prefer the higher-frequency gateway even at a higher fare.
Airlines flying to United Arab Emirates
8 carriers fly the corridors into the United Arab Emirates covered here; for the 8 we hold details on, checked-baggage baselines run from 23 kg to 30 kg, and 5 of them belong to a global alliance. Baselines are economy figures and depend on the fare family you buy.
Carriers operating the catalogued routes to United Arab Emirates, with alliance, baggage baseline and any diaspora or pilgrim baggage uplift:
| Airline | Alliance | Checked baggage | Diaspora uplift | Hajj/Umrah charter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EgyptAir (MS) | Star Alliance | 23 kg | +18 kg | Yes |
| Emirates (EK) | None | 30 kg | +10 kg | No |
| South African Airways (SA) | Star Alliance | 23 kg | +5 kg | No |
| Ethiopian Airlines (ET) | Star Alliance | 23 kg | +5 kg | Yes |
| Kenya Airways (KQ) | SkyTeam | 23 kg | +5 kg | No |
| Royal Air Maroc (AT) | Oneworld | 23 kg | +23 kg | Yes |
| Etihad Airways (EY) | None | 30 kg | +10 kg | No |
| RwandAir (WB) | None | 23 kg | — | No |
Diaspora and migrant-worker baggage uplift recorded against these carriers: Royal Air Maroc +23 kg, Emirates +10 kg, Ethiopian Airlines +5 kg, Etihad Airways +10 kg, Kenya Airways +5 kg and EgyptAir +18 kg. Three exclusions normally apply to promotions of this kind: they attach to nominated corridors rather than the whole network, they are rarely honoured on another airline’s codeshare or interline segment, and the deepest-discount fare buckets are usually carved out. Confirm against your own booking class in writing.
Visa & entry — United Arab Emirates
Entry rule for United Arab Emirates, by passport: Depends on passport. A visa on arrival is open only to South African and Kenyan passport holders who also hold a valid residence permit from the US, an EU state, the UK, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand or Canada; without one, arrange a UAE visa before travel. Nigeria and Ghana are not on that list. Other passports: check the official UAE rules for your nationality. Fee Visa on arrival: AED 100 (14 days) or AED 250 (60 days); fees for visas arranged in advance vary; maximum stay 14 days (extendable once in the UAE) or 60 days (not extendable) on the visa on arrival.
Entry rules by named nationality (verify against the official source before booking):
| Entry type | Fee | Max stay | Official source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depends on passport. A visa on arrival is open only to South African and Kenyan passport holders who also hold a valid residence permit from the US, an EU state, the UK, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand or Canada; without one, arrange a UAE visa before travel. Nigeria and Ghana are not on that list. Other passports: check the official UAE rules for your nationality | Visa on arrival: AED 100 (14 days) or AED 250 (60 days); fees for visas arranged in advance vary | 14 days (extendable once in the UAE) or 60 days (not extendable) on the visa on arrival | official |
Overstaying a UAE visa on arrival is fined AED 50 per day (UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 25 June 2026).
Nationality changes this answer. The row above names the passports it covers; a traveller on a West African, East African or North African passport not named there can face a different fee, a different processing route or outright ineligibility for the same United Arab Emirates entry class.
Worth knowing before booking: Overstaying a UAE visa on arrival is fined AED 50 per day (UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 25 June 2026).
When to book
Book 4-8 weeks ahead. That window is our guidance for the intra-Africa + Gulf hub transit corridor traffic that dominates travel into the United Arab Emirates, based on how fares on these corridors behave in our own weekly log. Every fare on this site is quoted in USD.
Book 4-8 weeks ahead. Fares rise around the December holidays; mid-week departures are usually the cheapest. See each per-route guide for month-by-month fare seasonality.
Treat the window as a function of the schedule rather than a rule. Dense corridors into United Arab Emirates keep releasing inventory, so a late booking costs money but still works. Thin ones sell their cheap buckets months ahead and then simply run out, which is a different failure — one that no amount of refreshing a search will fix.
Fixed dates change the calculation entirely. A pilgrimage window, a school holiday, a contract start or a family event puts you in competition with everyone else holding that date, so the right move is to book early rather than to hunt. Flexible dates are the highest-leverage variable on these corridors — our own log regularly shows month-to-month movement larger than any gap between booking gates.
Cached fares to United Arab Emirates
$200 is the lowest USD quote our cache holds on any corridor into the United Arab Emirates — on ADD-DXB — out of 9 priced corridors of the 15 catalogued. Each is one cached observation on its own corridor, in economy, not a low across the cache.
Lowest USD fares in our weekly Travelpayouts cache on routes to United Arab Emirates (market lows across all carriers, each a dated observation; check live prices before booking):
| Corridor | Market low (USD) | Cheapest month seen |
|---|---|---|
| ADD-DXB | $200 | $197 in Jul 2026 |
| NBO-DXB | $344 | $214 in Jul 2026 |
| EBB-DXB | $359 | $200 in Jul 2026 |
| ABV-DXB | $395 | $395 in Sep 2026 |
| DUR-DXB | $428 | $428 in Apr 2027 |
| HRE-DXB | $504 | $439 in Jul 2026 |
| LOS-DXB | $660 | $426 in Aug 2026 |
| DSS-DXB | $666 | — |
| Corridor | Readings | Cached range (USD) | Cheapest week |
|---|---|---|---|
| ADD-DXB | 6 | $200–$453 | 2026-W29 |
| CAI-DXB | 6 | $214–$274 | 2026-W27 |
| DAR-DXB | 6 | $489–$553 | 2026-W27 |
| JNB-AUH | 5 | $614–$896 | 2026-W27 |
| JNB-DXB | 6 | $557–$672 | 2026-W29 |
| KGL-DXB | 5 | $389–$700 | 2026-W24 |
| LOS-DXB | 3 | $622–$850 | 2026-W27 |
| NBO-DXB | 4 | $252–$375 | 2026-W29 |
Those rows come from our weekly fare log, which samples the cheapest published quote once a week across 161 corridors. Each reading is a single snapshot rather than an average of everything sold that week, so a one-week dip can be one small fare bucket. What the range does establish is a defensible floor: a live quote far above the top of the range on a United Arab Emirates corridor is worth a second search on flexible dates.
Departure airports for United Arab Emirates
14 African airports have a catalogued corridor to the United Arab Emirates on this site, including Abuja (ABV), Addis Ababa (ADD), Cairo (CAI), Casablanca (CMN), Cape Town (CPT), Dar es Salaam (DAR), Dakar (DSS) and Durban (DUR) and 6 more, all listed below. Fares from every one of them are quoted in USD so the origins stay comparable.
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Abuja airport (ABV) — Nnamdi Azikiwe International, Nigeria: 5 catalogued departure corridors and 1 arrival corridor.
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Addis Ababa airport (ADD) — Bole International, Ethiopia: 13 catalogued departure corridors and 6 arrival corridors.
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Cairo airport (CAI) — Cairo International, Egypt: 12 catalogued departure corridors and 1 arrival corridor.
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Casablanca airport (CMN) — Mohammed V International, Morocco: 17 catalogued departure corridors and 0 arrival corridors.
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Cape Town airport (CPT) — Cape Town International, South Africa: 7 catalogued departure corridors and 1 arrival corridor.
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Dar es Salaam airport (DAR) — Julius Nyerere International, Tanzania: 11 catalogued departure corridors and 2 arrival corridors.
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Dakar airport (DSS) — Blaise Diagne International, Senegal: 4 catalogued departure corridors and 2 arrival corridors.
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Durban airport (DUR) — King Shaka International, South Africa: 4 catalogued departure corridors and 0 arrival corridors.
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Entebbe airport (EBB) — Entebbe International, Uganda: 6 catalogued departure corridors and 2 arrival corridors.
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Harare airport (HRE) — Robert Mugabe International, Zimbabwe: 6 catalogued departure corridors and 1 arrival corridor.
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Johannesburg airport (JNB) — O.R. Tambo International, South Africa: 39 catalogued departure corridors and 6 arrival corridors.
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Kigali airport (KGL) — Kigali International, Rwanda: 8 catalogued departure corridors and 3 arrival corridors.
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Lagos airport (LOS) — Murtala Muhammed International, Nigeria: 19 catalogued departure corridors and 2 arrival corridors.
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Nairobi airport (NBO) — Jomo Kenyatta International, Kenya: 19 catalogued departure corridors and 6 arrival corridors.
FAQ
Do I need a visa for United Arab Emirates? Depends on passport. A visa on arrival is open only to South African and Kenyan passport holders who also hold a valid residence permit from the US, an EU state, the UK, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand or Canada; without one, arrange a UAE visa before travel. Nigeria and Ghana are not on that list. Other passports: check the official UAE rules for your nationality
What currency is used in United Arab Emirates? United Arab Emirates uses AED. Plan on-the-ground spending in AED and compare airfares in USD.
How many routes go to United Arab Emirates from Africa? Our catalogue lists 15 routes to United Arab Emirates from 14 African airports — see the table above.
When are flights to United Arab Emirates cheapest? Book 4-8 weeks ahead. Fares rise around the December holidays; mid-week departures are usually the cheapest.
Which airlines fly to United Arab Emirates? Carriers on routes to United Arab Emirates include EgyptAir, Emirates, South African Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Etihad Airways, RwandAir. See the per-route airlines in the table above.
How cheap are flights to United Arab Emirates? The lowest cached fare to United Arab Emirates in our weekly snapshot was about $200 on ADD-DXB — a dated observation, not a current price. Fares move with season; the route guides show each fare with the date it was found.
Search live fares
15 catalogued corridors into the United Arab Emirates means a live search will return several routings for the same dates; the lowest cached floor across them in our weekly snapshot was $200 — a dated observation, not a current price. Dates move the price more than any other variable. Fares across all 15 of those corridors are quoted in USD on this site so origins in different African markets stay comparable on one page.
Search flights to United Arab Emirates on Aviasales ->
Three checks make results comparable. Fix passenger count and cabin before comparing, because a per-passenger fare and a total look identical on a results page. Read the elapsed time next to the price — a one-stop routing into United Arab Emirates and a nonstop are different products. And check whether the fare includes the checked bag you will actually carry.
Scan the calendar, not the vendors. Between departure months our weekly log shows movement on these corridors well beyond anything that separates one booking gate from another, so a single flexible-date search outperforms repeated fixed-date ones. When the dates are fixed, earlier purchase is the only remaining lever.