The roads more travelled

Motor vehicle travel to South Africa’s big three airports during December 2023 compared to twelve months previously was, on average, 9% up, while service station stops dropped by 14%.

Lightstone analyses anonymised, aggregated and upweighted telemetry data to track and understand vehicle movement trends.

Travel to OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg increased by 10%, while Cape Town International Airport was up by 11% and travel to Durban’s King Shaka International was up by only 1%, resulting in an increase in travel of 9% to all three airports.

Service station stops (see graph below) were down by 14%, with most severe drops being recorded in the Eastern Cape (24%) and Limpopo (28%). Service station stops fared best in Northern Cape and Gauteng with drops of only 8% in both provinces.

Service station stops: December 2023 vs December 2022

Service station stops

In this map below, those service stations which recorded more than 50 000 stops in December 2023 are marked by a circle, while those with between 25 000 to 50 000 stops are marked with a triangle, and the colours indicate how volumes compared from December 2023 to December 2022.

The red and blue demonstrate how compromised Eastern Cape, Limpopo and the KZN interior were.

Change in stops on previous December

Although most of the service stations were down along the Johannesburg to Durban route (map below), December 2023 stops at the ever-popular Bergview were higher than in December 2022.

The busiest service stations on travelling routes were Engen-Bergview, Total Petroport-Alzu, Engen-Kranskop 1 (North and South), Shell UC (South Coast, South bound), Total Petroport-Riverhorse Valley (North Coast, North bound), Shell UC-Estcourt North, and Shell Montrose.

South Africans were, typically, on the road in higher numbers over the weekends, with the busiest days, based on service station activity on routes not servicing local town traffic, (in order) on Saturday 23, Saturday 16, Friday 22, Friday 15, Wednesday 27, Sunday 24, Monday 18, and Saturday 30 December.

Busiest travel days: December 2023