Aviation,apartheid and sanctions: Air transport to and from South Africa, 1945–1989

The geography of air transport to and from South Africa has been shaped powerfully by the world map of anti-apartheid, sanctions-keeping nations which close their airspace to the Republic's state-owned airline. Re-routering, involving notably the offshore west-African link to Europe, revocation of foreign landing rights and a shrinking airline network have resulted. The economic dependence of the Republic's southern African neighbours on their political adversary has dissuaded them from joining an anti-apartheid air blockade. Likewise, the penalties to black African states of denying overfying, landing and traffic rights to west-European airlines plying the South Africa route have diminished the force of the air embargo.