Distance from Cape Town to Nairobi
The great-circle distance between Cape Town, South Africa and Nairobi, Kenya is 4,103 km (2,550 mi · 2,216 nmi) — the shortest possible route over the Earth's surface, the path aircraft approximately follow.
The numbers
- Great-circle distance
- 4,103 km · 2,550 mi · 2,216 nmi
- Initial bearing Cape Town → Nairobi
- 32° (NNE)
- Initial bearing Nairobi → Cape Town
- 206° (SSW)
- Nonstop flight (rough estimate)
- ≈ 5 h 29 min
- Time zones
- Cape Town UTC+02:00 · Nairobi UTC+03:00 (+1 h)
- Sunrise gap today
- 116 min — the sun rises later 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
- 05:34 UTC / 16:12 UTC
- Nairobi
- -1.2833, 36.8167
- Sunrise / sunset today
- 03:37 UTC / 15:41 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.