COVID-19 and diesel costs blamed as MyCiti suspends service

The City of Cape Town will be suspending the MyCiTi Airport Service as of Thursday.

In a statement issued yesterday, the City said that this comes as the demand for the service has not recovered since the lifting of the COVID-19 restrictions and high diesel costs.

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As such, the City has decided to redeploy the fleet to higher-demand routes, including those that are connecting Atlantis with Table View, Century City and the Cape Town central business district. 

The City’s Urban Mobility Directorate is continuously monitoring the MyCiTi routes to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of the service and efficient operations by allocating resources in accordance with passenger demand. 

“The 50,5% increase in the diesel price from 5 January to 2 November 2022, coupled with the low number of passengers making use of the Airport Service, have necessitated an intervention,” read the statement.

As a result, it was decided to suspend the MyCiTi Airport Service.

“It is regrettable and unfortunate that we have to suspend the Airport Service, but the City being a responsible and prudent administration, is obliged to allocate resources where it is much needed and in high demand,” said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Mobility, Rob Quintas. “The provision of additional buses to high demand areas will improve the day-to-day lives of regular commuters who have a great need for the MyCiTi service.”

“That said, we will investigate more cost effective and innovative solutions to resume the service in the future.”

“In the meantime, we are focused on improving the efficiencies along those routes where we have commuters in high numbers on a daily basis.”

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