60 Flights Delayed at Cape Town Airport as Taxi Violence Kept Staff From Reaching Work

Deadly violence between rival minibus taxi groups reached Cape Town International Airport on Friday, October 30, 2026, when staff shortages backed up security screening and 60 flights were delayed by 1 p.m., with no cancellations reported. In a later update that day, the airport said staffing had stabilized and normal operations had resumed.

Malcolm Koopman, the airport’s acting regional manager, told eNCA that at least 50 percent of staff could not get to work.

What the airport reported

The 1 p.m. count, from the airport’s statement via IOL, was 44 domestic departures, 11 international departures and five arrivals. The average delay was about 60 minutes.

Travelers described something worse than that average. News24 reported that stranded passengers said some flights left up to two hours late, and one traveler told EWN she had queued for at least six hours for a flight to George.

Some passengers also said they missed flights because of the lines, TimesLIVE reported. The airport told anyone who missed a flight to contact their airline directly, and FlySafair said on X that airport operations were being “impacted by unrest in the area.”

Koopman said the impact “has been most significant on domestic departures, especially at security screening points,” according to Voice of the Cape. Friday is traditionally a busy day for domestic travel, he noted.

The airport prioritized resources for terminal operations and security screening, freed up apron stands for arriving aircraft, brought in extra personnel, including from other airports, and added measures to improve passenger flow at screening.

Two figures that do not fully match

The staffing number comes in three versions. EWN said Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) reported 50% of its staff did not come in because of safety concerns, eNCA quoted Koopman on at least half of staff, and a later EWN report said half reportedly could not get to work in some areas for lack of transport.

The reports do not settle whether the figure covers only ACSA’s own employees or everyone working at the airport. We also found no final count of delayed flights for the full day: the 60 is a 1 p.m. snapshot.

The arrival advice also differed. EWN and Briefly reported ACSA telling travelers to allow an additional four hours for airport processing, while the airport’s advisory, as carried by TimesLIVE, eNCA and IOL, said to arrive four hours before international departures and three hours before domestic ones.

Bizcommunity, reporting the airport’s later update, describes the four-hour and three-hour guidance as the initial advice but does not say it was formally withdrawn. That update still asked passengers to check flight status with their airline or the ACSA app.

Why a road dispute hit an airport

The reports describe airport workers who could not get in or stayed away over safety concerns, not an aviation labor dispute. The cause is a turf war between the Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (CATA) and the Cape Organisation for the Democratic Taxi Association (CODETA), centered on a route linking Delft, Langa and Epping, EWN reported.

eNCA reported at least a dozen people killed in the violence this month, and News24 said three people were killed in shootings on Tuesday and Wednesday. The minibus taxi industry was running again on Friday morning, News24 reported, but commuters were avoiding their usual routes, and Briefly reported that airport workers still struggled to get in.

The Western Cape mobility department described an unofficial go-slow and said it had received no formal notice from the taxi industry of any suspension or reduction in services. A declared stoppage gives an employer a date to roster around, and this one had none, although the violence had been building all week.

Screening is where a staff shortage shows up fastest, because departing passengers have to clear it and it cannot simply be skipped. Sydney Airport’s screener strikes have hit the same pressure point since September, though those were announced industrial action.

The numbers fit that picture. Departures made up 55 of the 60 delays, with only five arrivals affected, which points to aircraft waiting for passengers still in line.

Aircraft held on the ground also keep their parking stands, which is the likely reason the airport had to free up stands for incoming flights.

Taxi disputes have reached this airport before, in a different way. During the August 2023 taxi strike, blockages closed Airport Approach Road from both directions of the N2, Business Report reported, while this week the City of Cape Town denied reports of an N2 blockade and the gap was inside the terminal.

What happens next

The next date to watch is Monday, November 2, when the provincial government and the City plan to meet CATA and CODETA leadership. CATA skipped Thursday’s emergency meeting with provincial Mobility Minister Isaac Sileku and City urban mobility official Rob Quintas, citing prior commitments outside the province, according to the Cape Argus.

The Western Cape Government is also preparing an urgent court application to clarify operating rights, Cape Town ETC reported. ACSA said, according to EWN, it was “doing everything possible to prevent a repeat of today’s disruption,” but the report gives no detail of how.

As of Saturday, October 31, we found no airport update newer than Friday’s return to normal operations. Whether the staffing gap returns depends largely on whether workers feel safe traveling in.