Upington Airport guide

Upington International Airport serves Upington, a town on the Orange River in the Northern Cape, South Africa. Airports Company South Africa owns and runs it. The airport opened in 1968 as Pierre van Ryneveld Airport and sits at an elevation of 851 m.

Its main runway, 17/35, is 4,900 m long, one of the longest in the world. It was built so a fully loaded Boeing 747 could take off for Europe in the thin, hot air. South African Airways used the airport as a refuelling stop for 747 flights to London and Zurich from 1976 to 1982, and Concorde carried out flight testing here in June 1976. A second asphalt runway, 01/19, is 2,438 m long. A short third runway, 08/26, is used only for taxiing at night and in instrument conditions.

Airlink flies scheduled services to Cape Town and Johannesburg O.R. Tambo. In the 2025-26 fiscal year the airport handled 62,653 passengers and 5,555 aircraft movements. Seasonal charter flights export grapes to Europe, and car makers use the airport and the hot climate for vehicle testing. ACSA has also built a solar farm on the airport grounds.