Flights Johannesburg -> Maputo (JNB-MPM) — USD Fares, Airlines, Frequency
14 scheduled departures a week link Johannesburg (JNB) in South Africa with Maputo (MPM) — about 2 a day — flown by 3 catalogued carriers at a scheduled block time near 1.0 hours.
Flight JNB -> MPM is operated by Airlink, LAM Mozambique Airlines, South African Airways (~14 flights per week, ~1.0h block time). This is an intra-Africa + Gulf hub transit corridor. As a rough planning range (an editorial estimate, not an observed fare), economy runs about $500-1,500; the fare observation on this page shows what our weekly snapshot recorded and when. Intra-Africa and Gulf-hub transit fares move week-to-week; 4-8 weeks is the typical sweet spot.
Great-circle distance Johannesburg–Maputo is about 433 km, computed from the stored coordinates of JNB (-26.13, 28.24) and MPM (-25.92, 32.57). What the figure fixes is the sector profile — 433 km against a scheduled 1.0-hour block time — and the fuel-and-crew economics behind the fare floor. It does not fix a compensation amount. No fixed-tariff compensation scheme reaches JNB–MPM. EU261 and UK261 do band by distance, but they only cover flights departing an EU/EEA or UK airport — plus arrivals there on a bloc-licensed carrier — and neither endpoint here is one, whoever operates the flight. The Montreal Convention 1999 is what applies, and it pays provable loss, not a tariff.
Airlines on this route
3 carriers operate JNB–MPM: Airlink (4Z), LAM Mozambique Airlines (LM) and South African Airways (SA). Our carrier table records checked-baggage baselines of 23 kg; South African Airways sits in Star Alliance, with no alliance recorded for 4Z and LM. Frequency on the corridor is about 14 weekly departures.
| Carrier | Baggage baseline | Alliance |
|---|---|---|
| Airlink (4Z) | 23 kg | - |
| LAM Mozambique Airlines (LM) | 23 kg | - |
| South African Airways (SA) | 23 kg | Star Alliance |
One column is blank rather than negative. We have no alliance information on record for Airlink and LAM Mozambique Airlines, so this page says nothing about their alliance membership either way. The practical question a connection turns on is narrower anyway: whether the two airlines on your itinerary interline, and whether both sectors sit on one ticket. Both are answerable at the booking screen, and neither depends on an alliance badge.
USD fares — JNB-MPM
$205 was the lowest one-way economy price the Travelpayouts feed returned in our weekly snapshot for JNB–MPM on TM, for a 2026-11-07T08:50:00+02:00 departure. That is a single cached observation on this one corridor — not a low across the site’s fare cache, and not a live price — so read it as an observed floor for JNB–MPM on that date.
As a rough planning range (an editorial estimate, not an observed fare), economy on JNB-MPM runs about $500-1,500; the fare observation on this page shows what our weekly snapshot recorded and when. Cached fares from a weekly Travelpayouts snapshot appear in the panel below, with their observation date; fare-month seasonality follows.
Across the 5 departure months our cache holds a one-way low for, the cheapest reading on JNB–MPM was $89 for a Jul 2026 departure and the dearest was $157 for Aug 2026 — a spread of $68 between the best and worst month in the same cache. Month-to-month movement of that size is normal on this corridor and is usually worth more than any single booking trick.
| Departure month | Cheapest one-way seen (USD) |
|---|---|
| Jul 2026 | $89 |
| Aug 2026 | $157 |
| Sep 2026 | $133 |
| Oct 2026 | $103 |
| Feb 2027 | $100 |
The fare family sits outside our data, and it is the piece that decides the real cost. A cached JNB–MPM quote records a price, a date and a carrier — not whether a 23 kg bag, a seat or a change is included. Where the corridor’s floor is set by a stripped fare, the ranking on screen reverses once the bag is added.
Baggage on JNB–MPM: baselines, uplift and the exclusions
23 kg is the checked-baggage baseline our carrier table records for the 3 airlines on JNB–MPM, with a recorded diaspora uplift of up to +10 kg on LAM Mozambique Airlines. Baselines are economy figures and fare-family dependent. The allowance printed on your issued ticket overrides any table, this one included.
A baggage baseline is the economy checked allowance an airline advertises as standard. It is not what your ticket necessarily grants. The same airline sells fare families below the baseline — hand-baggage-only and basic-economy buckets are exactly the ones that surface as the cheapest JNB–MPM quote in any fare cache, including ours. The allowance printed on your itinerary overrides any table, ours included.
Where our table records a migrant or diaspora uplift — +7 kg on Airlink, +10 kg on LAM Mozambique Airlines and +5 kg on South African Airways — three exclusions usually bite. The uplift attaches to nominated corridors rather than the whole network; it rarely survives onto a codeshare or interline segment operated and ticketed by a different airline; and the deepest-discount fare buckets are commonly carved out. None of that makes the uplift fictional, but it does mean it has to be confirmed against your booking class, in writing, before you pack to it.
Is the cheap JNB–MPM itinerary really nonstop?
1.0 hours is the scheduled nonstop block time on JNB–MPM; any itinerary a search returns well above that is connecting, whatever the screen calls it. “Direct” is a flight-number description, not a promise of a single takeoff and landing. Two separately issued sectors are not one contract.
The distinction is not pedantry. A direct flight keeps one flight number through an intermediate stop, so it can sit in the nonstop filter of a search engine while adding an hour on the ground and a second departure to miss. A connecting itinerary changes flight number and usually aircraft. On JNB–MPM the practical test is the elapsed-time figure: compare it against the 1.0-hour block time before you compare prices.
The second trap is the ticket, not the routing. Two cheap sectors bought separately to reach Maputo are not one contract: your bag is not through-checked, you re-clear security and often immigration at the transfer point, and if the first leg lands late the second airline owes you nothing — no rebooking, no refund, no duty of care. A single ticket that costs more can be the cheaper outcome the first time anything slips.
Search live fares
14 weekly departures across 3 carriers mean a live JNB–MPM search returns several price points for the same day; our cached floor for the corridor is $205. Scheduled nonstop block time is 1.0 hours, so any result far above that is connecting whatever the screen says.
Search JNB -> MPM on Aviasales ->
Comparing JNB–MPM quotes fairly takes three corrections. Passenger count and cabin have to match across the tabs you are comparing. Elapsed time has to be read beside the price, since a connection can add most of a day to the 1.0-hour nonstop. And the baggage line has to be checked, because the cheapest fare family is usually the one carrying the least.
If anything about your JNB–MPM trip can move, make it the dates. The gap between the cheapest and dearest departure month in our own fare log is routinely larger than any difference between one booking site and another. Fixed dates put you in competition with everyone else holding the same date, and the answer there is to book early rather than to keep looking.
About Maputo
3 catalogued corridors in this site’s data reach Maputo (MPM), Maputo International, ICAO FQMA, from 3 catalogued origins and 5 carriers in total. That count is this site’s coverage of Maputo, not the airport’s published schedule. Each of those corridors has its own guide with carriers, weekly frequency, scheduled block time and whatever the fare cache holds.
Maputo, Mozambique — destination on the intra-Africa + Gulf hub transit corridor. Destination currency: USD (we quote in USD throughout this guide).
Beyond JNB, our catalogue reaches Maputo from 2 other origins: Dar es Salaam (DAR) and Luanda (LAD). That matters when the JNB–MPM fare is unattractive: on a continent where positioning flights are cheap, flying out of a different gateway is a real option, and each of those corridors has its own guide, carriers and cached fare floor on this site.
FAQ
Which airlines fly Johannesburg to Maputo? Direct JNB-MPM flights are operated by Airlink, LAM Mozambique Airlines, South African Airways. Compare baggage baseline and alliance in the carrier table above.
How long is the JNB-MPM flight and how often does it run? Block time is about 1.0 hours. The JNB-MPM route runs roughly 14 flights per week across all carriers.
How much does a JNB-MPM flight cost and when is it cheapest? Our rough planning range is $500-1,500 USD (an editorial estimate, not an observed fare); the fare observation on this page shows what our weekly snapshot recorded and when. Intra-Africa and Gulf-hub transit fares move week-to-week; 4-8 weeks is the typical sweet spot.
What is the checked baggage allowance on JNB-MPM? It varies by carrier and fare class — see the baggage-baseline column in the carrier table above. Full-service carriers usually include 23-30 kg, while low-cost carriers sell it as an add-on. Confirm on the airline’s site before booking. Diaspora travellers should check each carrier’s extra-baggage uplift.
What currency is used in Maputo? Maputo uses USD. Fares in this guide are quoted in USD; budget on-the-ground spending in USD.
Related routes and reading
- Johannesburg airport (JNB) — O.R. Tambo International, South Africa: 39 catalogued departure corridors and 6 arrival corridors.
- Maputo airport (MPM) — Maputo International, Mozambique: 0 catalogued departure corridors and 3 arrival corridors.
Where this page covers one corridor, the linked airport guides cover the field: the full catalogued route list, based hub carriers, alliance mix and the compensation regime that applies there. Both JNB and MPM are linked deliberately, because departure airport and operating carrier — not destination — decide which rules cover a delay.