Johannesburg OR Tambo International Airport (IATA: JNB, ICAO: FAOR) is situated in the Kempton Park district of Ekurhuleni, Gauteng — 23 km north-west of Johannesburg’s city centre and 46 km south of Pretoria’s city centre. Originally opened as Jan Smuts Airport, it was renamed in 2006 in honour of Oliver Reginald Tambo, the former President of the African National Congress who led the party through much of its exile period during apartheid and played a central role in the international anti-apartheid movement. Passengers and locals alike commonly use the abbreviation “ORTIA.”

OR Tambo is one of the few airports in the world offering scheduled direct passenger flights to all six inhabited continents, and serves as the principal continental gateway to much of sub-Saharan Africa. It is consistently ranked as Africa’s busiest airport, handling more than 28 million passengers a year across 140-plus destinations served by 46 airlines, and is the primary hub for South African Airways alongside major international carriers including British Airways, Emirates, Lufthansa, KLM, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines and Delta.

The airport underwent major expansion ahead of South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, including a new central terminal building, an expanded international pier, a modern baggage handling system, and the Gautrain rapid rail link terminating inside Terminal B — investments that lifted capacity to 28 million passengers annually and remain the backbone of the airport’s infrastructure today.