Distance from Cape Town to Madrid
The great-circle distance between Cape Town, South Africa and Madrid, Spain is 8,572 km (5,327 mi · 4,629 nmi) — the shortest possible route over the Earth's surface, the path aircraft approximately follow.
The numbers
- Great-circle distance
- 8,572 km · 5,327 mi · 4,629 nmi
- Initial bearing Cape Town → Madrid
- 343° (NNW)
- Initial bearing Madrid → Cape Town
- 161° (SSE)
- Nonstop flight (rough estimate)
- ≈ 10 h 45 min
- Time zones
- Cape Town UTC+02:00 · Madrid UTC+01:00 (-1 h)
- Sunrise gap today
- 193 min — the sun rises earlier in Cape Town
Flight time is a cruise-speed approximation (no routing/wind); driving distance depends on roads and is typically 20–40% longer than great-circle.
The two cities
- Cape Town
- -33.9258, 18.4232
- Sunrise / sunset today
- 03:41 UTC / 17:21 UTC
- Madrid
- 40.4165, -3.7026
- Sunrise / sunset today
- 06:53 UTC / 17:06 UTC
Open in the distance calculator Find the halfway point
Distances here are straight-line (great-circle). Road routes typically run 1.2–1.4× longer — here's why, with the visual.