Singapore Airlines is increasing flights on their Johannesburg route during July and August 2018, adding 3 flights per week for a total of 10 connections to the largest city in South Africa.
The additional flights come on the back of a recent announcement that the existing daily Johannesburg flight will continue to Cape Town each day from March 2018, instead of only four times weekly.
These 3 new flights, however, will not continue to Cape Town. They will operate on Wednesdays, Friday and Sundays with a different schedule to the existing flights; daytime service is now offered on the Singapore to Johannesburg leg with a lunchtime departure landing into South Africa the early evening.
On the return sector flights leave Johannesburg in the evening, touching down in Singapore at lunchtime the following day.
The additional flights will be served by the Airbus A350, in common with SIAs other flights to Johannesburg.

Schedule
Additional services are highlighted in yellow in the following table.
From 1st July 2018 to 31st August 2018
Flight | From / To | Aircraft | Days |
SQ478 | SIN0125 – JNB0610 | 359 | 1··4·6· |
SQ478 | SIN0200 – JNB0635 | 359 | ·23·5·7 |
SQ479 | JNB1345 – SIN0610* | 359 | ·23·5·7 |
SQ479 | JNB1355 – SIN0610* | 359 | 1··4·6· |
SQ482 | SIN1400 – JNB1835 | 359 | ··3·5·7 |
SQ481 | JNB1955 – SIN1220* | 359 | ··3·5·7 |
*next day
KrisFlyer redemptions
Despite taking 10 hours 35 minutes to reach Johannesburg from Singapore, it sits in a great value redemption band costing only 45,000 KrisFlyer miles for a one-way business saver award ticket.

That makes it a great opportunity to experience the A350 business class product on a long sector for a very reasonable number of miles. It’s 58,000 miles in business class, for example, for the 8-hour hop from Singapore to Sydney.
The value is especially emphasised with the high cost of business class tickets between Asia and South Africa, even using the Middle East carriers.

Award tickets can also be combined with South African Airways flights at the Johannesburg end of the route, though the redemption cost reverts to the Star Alliance rate, which is a bit higher.

Here’s a table of the one-way redemption rates for the Singapore to Johannesburg route, using KrisFlyer miles.
![]() |
Saver | Advantage |
Economy | 25,000 | 55,000 |
Premium Economy | 35,000 | n/a |
Business | 45,000 | 90,000 |
Award Availability
Here’s a full table of the award availability for this new flight during the two months of operation, searched on 27th February and subject to change. As you can see, practically every day of operation currently features two saver award tickets.
‘Extra’ A350 Singapore to Johannesburg flights (Business)
SIN-JNB SQ482 | JNB-SIN SQ481 | ||
Date | Savers | Date | Savers |
1 July | WL | 1 July | WL |
4 July | 2 | 4 July | 2 |
6 July | 2 | 6 July | 2 |
8 July | 2 | 8 July | 2 |
11 July | 2 | 11 July | 2 |
13 July | 2 | 13 July | 2 |
15 July | 2 | 15 July | 2 |
18 July | 1 | 18 July | 2 |
20 July | 2 | 20 July | 2 |
22 July | 2 | 22 July | 2 |
25 July | 2 | 25 July | 2 |
27 July | 1 | 27 July | 2 |
29 July | 2 | 29 July | 2 |
1 August | 2 | 1 August | 2 |
3 August | 2 | 3 August | 2 |
5 August | 2 | 5 August | 2 |
8 August | 2 | 8 August | 2 |
10 August | 2 | 10 August | 2 |
12 August | 2 | 12 August | 2 |
15 August | 2 | 15 August | 2 |
17 August | 2 | 17 August | 2 |
19 August | 2 | 19 August | 2 |
22 August | 2 | 22 August | 2 |
24 August | 2 | 24 August | 2 |
26 August | 2 | 26 August | 2 |
29 August | WL | 29 August | 2 |
31 August | 2 | 31 August | 2 |
WL: Waitlist. Availability correct at 27th February, and is subject to change.
The existing services on this route appear to have mostly waitlisted saver awards through July and August, so we would recommend locking in award seats on this new service if you’re thinking of travelling to or from South Africa during that period.
Remember that provided you book by the end of tomorrow (28th February), you can cancel your award booking and re-deposit your KrisFlyer miles for a US$30 fee (US$15 for KrisFlyer Elite Silver members and above), important to note as that fee will rise to US$75 for redemption bookings made on or after 1st March.
(Cover Photo: South African Tourism)