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[title]I spend a lot of time travelling to and from Cape Town International Airport. It comes with the territory when you’re a travel writer. Even more so when you have an Instagram handle like mine. The other week, I was barely home in time to do the laundry before packing another bag and heading back down the N2.
Almost every time I fly, I run through the same calculation: do I drive to the airport or call an Uber? I think most locals heading out do the same.
In truth, I’d much rather drive.
My car turns up on time. It doesn’t cancel on me last minute. I know how much fuel is in the tank. It has working shock absorbers. And my car, unlike so many Ubers I’ve been in lately, doesn’t smell of feet.
Especially when rushing for a red-eye in the early hours, or landing late at night, I feel much more comfortable driving myself home along the N2 rather than staring at the back of a stranger’s head, watching the fuel light click on on the dashboard. There are many upsides to driving myself.
But then, there’s that parking ticket.
I’ve just come back from four days on assignment in the Northern Cape. If I’d left my car in P3 or P4 – the shaded outdoor parking at Cape Town International – ACSA would have stung me for around R820. If I’d taken the easier route of parking under cover in the P1 or P2 multi-storey car parks, those four days would have come to more than R1000. My Uber to the airport and back? Less than R400, before discounts.
So, I took the Uber. Of course I did.
But here’s the thing. I’d understand ACSA pricing their parking at a premium if travellers were clamouring to get in, and the parking lot was bursting at the seams... queues of cars back down to the N2. But it never is.
In the shaded parking areas, there are almost always rows and rows of empty bays. Indoors – I’m often in P1 for the e-hailing pickup – there are endless spaces left empty. P1 alone has more than 4000 spaces, and (as far as I can see) it's never full.
So, here’s my question: why on earth is airport parking so expensive in Cape Town? Why price locals away from parking (and paying the money to ACSA) and into e-hailing rides?
Now, before someone at ACSA flames me on socials, I realise there is a cheaper option for longer stays.
P5 is Cape Town International’s dedicated long-stay car park. And, on paper, it’s pretty good value. Stay six days, and the published tariff is R432. Seven days is R504, and after that you’re paying R72 for every additional 24 hours. A 10-day trip will cost around R790. Still almost double my R400 on Uber.
Except there’s a catch
P5 has just 189 bays, and you can’t book one in advance. ACSA says the long-stay facility is strictly first-come, first-served. So if I arrive at 5am for a 10-day stay, and P5 is full, I’m forced to park outdoors in P3 or P4. The bill? R1650 for the trip. Parking in the multi-storey P1 would push that to R2885!
And did you know there’s another curious detail in the tariff? Stay for six days in P5, and you’ll pay R432. But if your trip is cut short and you have to come home a day early? Your bill will be R1040. Yup, that’s right. One day less. Twice the price.
I realise that’s to stop travellers using long-stay P5 for short stays, clogging up those 189 precious spaces. Fair enough, but make more space available (as I said, there’s never a shortage of empty bays) and I (and surely other travellers) will use them.
And it’s not as if parking is simply a distracting sideline for ACSA.
In the financial year ending March 2026, Airports Company South Africa grew revenue by 11.6 per cent to R8.81 billion, of which almost half – R4.18 billion – came from ‘non-aeronautical’ revenue; the pot that includes property rentals and parking.
Which is why all those empty parking bays feel like such a missed opportunity. Imagine if P3 and P4 had a sensible long-stay tariff. Or if you could pre-book a discounted space in advance, as you can at OR Tambo. Perhaps the longer you stayed, the cheaper the daily rate became? Imagine if those rows (and rows) of empty undercover spaces in P1 and P2 weren’t left idle day after day. Imagine they were charged at a reasonable rate and locals like me chose to drive to the airport in safety and park our cars. While we’re at it, how about a discounted rate for CA and CAA number plates?
Because, of course, not everybody wants to drive and park. Plenty of people prefer being dropped at the door. Tourists need transfers. Some folks like a drink on that flight home and don’t want to get behind the wheel.
But there must be thousands of journeys each year in which travellers do the same mental arithmetic that I did last week.
Drive myself: R820.
Uber: R400.
Easy decision.
That’s hundreds of rands disappearing out of ACSA’s pocket every time. Make the parking reasonably priced and those empty bays would start earning money. Money that could be reinvested into the airport, the facilities and the passenger experience. Maybe even a decent free Wi-Fi service?
I don’t expect free parking, just price it fairly. Because, as with airline seats on a plane taking off, once the day is over, that inventory is gone for good. The opportunity for ACSA to monetise the empty spaces that day has gone, never to return. And as any business owner will tell you, wasting stock is never a savvy financial decision.
I’ll be heading back to the airport again soon for a six-day trip. I’d love to take my own car and not run the gauntlet of late-night Uber pickups. If I can get one of those 189 P5 bays, I just might.
If it’s four days?
I’ll see you in the Uber. Feet smell and all.
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