Malta sees 178 new cabs on its roads in 2025 despite market oversaturation claims

Malta has added 178 new cabs in the first three quarters of 2025, despite Prime Minister Robert Abela claiming last year the taxi market had become oversaturated.

Figures published by the National Statistics Office (NSO) show that after a very minor reduction in the number of garage-hire vehicles in 2024, these continued to increase in 2025.

While Malta had 5,028 garage-hire vehicles in the first three months of the year, the number shot up to 5,206 by September.

The notable increase in such vehicles came on the back of a clear declaration by the prime minister that the cab market was saturated and no more permits will be issued to third-country nationals (TCNs) to work in the sector.

While the NSO car statistics say nothing about, who drives the vehicles, industry insiders who spoke to MaltaToday said they find it hard to believe that the 176 new cabs would all be driven by Maltese nationals, given that they have slowly been pushed out of the market by low fares and astronomical expenses.

In view of the statistics, the Light Passenger Operators Association (LPOA) has publicly asked the prime minister and Transport Minister Chris Bonnet for an explanation of the numbers.

MaltaToday has sent questions to Transport Malta and the Employment Ministry, which regulates work permits, seeking an explanation for the new cab licences. No reply was received by the time this article went to print.

This is not the first time Abela’s “no more workers needed” statement was contradicted by statistics.

Less than six months after Abela claimed hundreds of TCNs applying to work as taxi drivers were having their permits refused, 307 foreign workers were granted Transport Malta (TM) tags needed to drive cabs.

Industry insiders had explained that the likely reason behind the still-growing number of foreign cab drivers at the time was because the new regulations did not take into consideration foreigners already residing in Malta. Requests to bring over foreigners to work in the cab industry were indeed being rejected but those who were already in Malta for over six months could still obtain a driver’s licence and apply for a cab driver tag.

Days after Abela’s promise, Malta’s largest ride-hailing app, Bolt, raised its prices due to a “low supply of cabs”. This prompted a strong response from the LPOA at the time, accusing Bolt of retaliating against the government’s attempts to regulate the market.

After the price hike in the summer, fares stabilised and cab prices began to decrease again.