---
title: "JNB — O.R. Tambo Airport, Johannesburg · Orbit"
description: "O.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB/FAOR) serves Johannesburg, South Africa. Opened 1952, named after Jan Christiaan Smuts, 21.2 million passengers in 2017."
url: https://orbitflights.app/airports/jnb
---

Johannesburg · South Africa · Africa

# JNB — O.R. Tambo

O.R. Tambo International Airport serves Johannesburg, South Africa, 21 km from the city centre, and sits at 26.1°S, 28.2°E. This site carries 8 routes touching it, with the great circle distance for each.

**IATA**
JNB
the code on your bag tag

**ICAO**
FAOR
used by air traffic control

**Opened**
1952
per Wikidata

**Passengers**
21.2M
in 2017

## History & name

O.R. Tambo International Airport opened in 1952 and is named after Oliver Tambo (1917–1993), the South African anti-apartheid activist and politician. Operated by Airports Company South Africa, it lies 21 km from Johannesburg at an elevation of 5,558 ft and handled 21.2 million passengers in 2017 on two runways, the longer 4,418 m.

Named after **Jan Christiaan Smuts** — South African statesman and military leader (1870–1950)

Read more: [Wikipedia ↗](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O.%5FR.%5FTambo%5FInternational%5FAirport) · [Wikidata ↗](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q821750)

## At a glance

**Full name**
O.R. Tambo International Airport

**Serves**
Johannesburg, South Africa

**City centre**
21 km from Johannesburg

**Opened**
1952

**Operator**
Airports Company South Africa

**Passengers**
21.2 million in 2017

**Runways**
2 runways, longest 4,418 m

**Elevation**
5,558 ft (1,694 m)

**Map**
[Open in Google Maps ↗](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=-26.14010,28.24680)

**Website**
[ortambo-airport.com ↗](https://ortambo-airport.com/)

## Where it sits

26.1°S, 28.2°E puts JNB in the southern hemisphere, 2,907 km from the equator and 7,101 km from the South pole.

Of the 661 airports on this site it is the **614th** most northerly, which makes it the 48th most southerly.

## Straight through the middle

Straight down through the centre of the Earth comes out at 26.1°N, 151.8°W. The nearest airport on this site to that point is Kahului (OGG) in United States, still 753 km away — most of the planet's antipodes are ocean.

## What’s near it

The closest other airport on this site is **Lanseria** (HLA), 39 km away in a straight line. It is the only one within 100 km.

HLA Lanseria 39 km

## Distances from JNB

Great circle distance and an estimated time in the air. The longest is Atlanta, at 13,583 km.

| To                                                      |     | Distance  | Estimated |
| ------------------------------------------------------- | --- | --------- | --------- |
| [Cape Town](https://orbitflights.app/routes/jnb-to-cpt) | CPT | 1,272 km  | 2h 05m    |
| [Nairobi](https://orbitflights.app/routes/jnb-to-nbo)   | NBO | 2,912 km  | 4h 07m    |
| [Mauritius](https://orbitflights.app/routes/jnb-to-mru) | MRU | 3,066 km  | 4h 19m    |
| [Dubai](https://orbitflights.app/routes/dxb-to-jnb)     | DXB | 6,413 km  | 8h 28m    |
| [Istanbul](https://orbitflights.app/routes/ist-to-jnb)  | IST | 7,496 km  | 9h 49m    |
| [Frankfurt](https://orbitflights.app/routes/fra-to-jnb) | FRA | 8,690 km  | 11h 18m   |
| [London](https://orbitflights.app/routes/lhr-to-jnb)    | LHR | 9,075 km  | 11h 47m   |
| [Atlanta](https://orbitflights.app/routes/jnb-to-atl)   | ATL | 13,583 km | 17h 23m   |

[Distance from JNB to any airport →](https://orbitflights.app/distance?from=JNB&to=ATL) [Map a trip from JNB →](https://orbitflights.app/tools/flight-route-map?r=JNB-ATL)

## Where these facts come from

The profile is looked up, not written from memory: type, runways, elevation and the official website from [OurAirports](https://ourairports.com/data/) (public domain); opening year, namesake, operator and passenger count from [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/) (CC0); the city centre from [GeoNames](https://www.geonames.org/) (CC BY 4.0). Where a source has nothing, the line is left out. Distances, neighbours and the antipode are computed from the coordinates.

What you won’t find: terminal maps, airline lists, shops or live departures. Orbit is a logbook, not a flight tracker, and a page that guessed at those would be worse than one that leaves them out.

[Measure JNB to anywhere →](https://orbitflights.app/distance) [Flights to Johannesburg →](https://orbitflights.app/flights-to/johannesburg)

## Flown through JNB?

Orbit knows all 8,801 airports offline and works out the distance the moment you enter two codes.

[Download now](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.qwertybit.orbit)

---
Markdown copy of https://orbitflights.app/airports/jnb for language models and agents. Site index: https://orbitflights.app/llms.txt