Distance from Cape Town to New York City
Flying the shortest possible route, New York City lies 12,565 km (7,807 miles, 6,784 nautical miles) from Cape Town — the great-circle distance between their coordinates.
The numbers
- Great-circle distance
- 12,565 km · 7,807 mi · 6,784 nmi
- Initial bearing Cape Town → New York City
- 305° (NW)
- Initial bearing New York City → Cape Town
- 116° (ESE)
- Nonstop flight (rough estimate)
- ≈ 15 h 26 min
- Time zones
- Cape Town UTC+02:00 · New York City UTC-05:00 (-7 h)
- Sunrise gap today
- 475 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
- New York City
- 40.7143, -74.0060
- Sunrise / sunset today
- 11:35 UTC / 21:46 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.