How you should travel this December: Driving vs. Flying – The cost breakdown

Discover the surprising cost-effectiveness of driving versus flying in South Africa. MyBroadband's analysis compares the expenses of driving alone in a Toyota Corolla Cross 1.8 XS HEV or Corolla Cross 1.8 Xi CVT from Johannesburg to Cape Town, Durban, and George. Despite higher airfares showing a 20% increase, driving alone is often more economical. Explore detailed fuel price calculations, vehicle costs, and flight prices for a comprehensive comparison, revealing that traveling with companions significantly enhances the savings of driving over flying.

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Flying vs driving this December holiday — the winner is clear

By Myles Illidge

While it is more time-consuming and requires more attention than air travel, driving is still more cost-effective than flying when not travelling alone.

Moreover, it is cheaper to drive from Johannesburg to George alone in a hybrid vehicle than it is to fly.

MyBroadband compared the cost of driving from Johannesburg to three popular holiday destinations in hybrid and petrol-powered vehicles to return flights to the same destinations.

The routes we selected are as follows:

• Johannesburg <-> Cape Town (2,796km)
• Johannesburg <-> Durban (1,134km)
• Johannesburg <-> George (2,340km)

For the driving comparison, we selected two comparable vehicles that are the model with different drivetrains — the Toyota Corolla Cross 1.8 XS HEV and the Corolla Cross 1.8 Xi CVT.

For reference, these vehicles retail from R486,100 and R408,400, respectively.

While the hybrid Corolla Cross boasts a combined fuel consumption figure of 4.3ℓ/100km, most of each route is driven at highway speeds — when the hybrid's electric motor no longer kicks in.

Several sources indicate that the highway fuel consumption figure is closer to 38 miles per gallon or approximately 6.2ℓ/100km. We used this figure for our fuel price calculations for the hybrid Corolla Cross.

The petrol-powered Toyota Corolla Cross' fuel consumption is 6.8ℓ/100km.

We used the estimated December fuel price of R22.83 per litre of unleaded 95. We calculated this by taking November 2023's unleaded 95 price of R23.90 per litre and subtracting R1.07.

The figure of R1.07 per litre is the expected petrol price decrease for December 2023, as reported by TopAuto.

The cost of driving the Toyota Corolla Cross 1.8 XS Hybrid is compared to the cost of operating a petrol-powered Toyota Corolla Cross along the three routes is summarised in the table below.

December flight prices are relatively high at the moment. In early October 2023, Tash Webb, head of air pricing at distribution at Flight Centre, said airfares are substantially higher across the board.

"Both domestic and international December 2023 airfares are showing double-digit growth at approximately 20% up over last year," said Webb.

"Domestic ticket prices are in a state of flux over the coming months whilst international ticket prices continue to see double-digit growth."

"We don't foresee, in the immediate future, any relief on airfare pricing," she said.

However, despite the higher airfares, flying to Durban and Cape Town is cheaper than driving alone.

The cheapest return flight to Cape Town came in at R3,407.81, while the cheapest flight to Durban costs R1,781.57.

The outgoing flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town is with FlySafair, while the returning flight is with South African Airways.

For the R1,781.57 return trip to Durban, passengers will depart Johannesburg on a Lift airline and return on South African Airways.

Driving a Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid along the routes will cost R4,396.63 and R2,230.13, respectively, including toll fees.

The same routes in the petrol-powered Corolla Cross will cost R4,779.62 and R2,385.47, respectively.

For the flight price comparison, we assumed a holiday period of two weeks — fourteen days — from 16 December to 30 December 2023. Due to the 14-day period, we only selected airfares that allow passengers to check in a bag.

However, those travelling with one or more people will save money driving over flying.

Splitting the driving costs across two passengers, the return trip to Cape Town in the hybrid Corolla Cross works out to R2,198.32 each, while the journey to Durban and back will cost R1,115.07.

The petrol-powered Corolla Cross will cost two passengers R2,389.81 each on the route to Cape Town and R1,192.74 when driving from Johannesburg to Durban and back.

One route — the return trip between J0hannesburg and George — is cheaper to drive alone than flying alone, for both the hybrid and petrol-powered Corolla Cross.

The cheapest return ticket costs R5,830.13, while driving the hybrid and petrol-powered Corolla Cross will cost R3,656.18 and R3,976.71, respectively.

For this flight, passengers would depart Johannesburg on a FlySafair flight and return on AirLink.

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This article was first published by MyBroadband and is republished with permission