In the 2010s, the provincial government entity that had always operated the system, the Empresa Provincial de Transportes de Mendoza (EPTM), began to experience increasingly worsening financial problems, due in large part to difficulties in keeping its fleet of approximately 30-year-old trolleybuses operating reliably.

The suspension lasted 16 months, and trolleybus service resumed on the Parque route in January 2019.

[1] On 14 February 1958, at the intersection of 9 de Julio and Necochea streets, Dr. Isidoro Bousquet formally opened Mendoza's trolleybus system.

To this day, that line still follows the same route (9 de Julio, Colón, Arístides Villanueva, Boulogne Sur Mer, Jorge A. Calle, Perú and Godoy Cruz streets).

The Mendoza trolleybus system was still expanding significantly as recently as the mid-2000s, with the construction of a long new line connecting Godoy Cruz with Las Heras, and of a shorter line connecting the bus terminal with the National University of Cuyo.

Although already 26 years old at the time, these vehicles were believed to be in better condition than EPTM's then-existing fleet of secondhand German trolleybuses built in the 1970s.

The number of serviceable trolleybuses in the fleet grew to 60 by 2010, and the scheduled peak vehicle requirement was 48.

[7] Service on the Villa Nueva (alternatively spelled Villanueva) route resumed in 2011, ending a six-year suspension[8] attributed mainly to long delays in work to renew or refurbish its deteriorated overhead wiring.

[14] Meanwhile, EPTM continued to experience reliability problems with the Flyer trolleybuses, now more than 30 years old, and a large number were withdrawn from service between 2013 and 2015.

[16] At the end of 2016, the provincial government dissolved EPTM, which had been the trolleybus's only operator for its entire history up to that time (nearly 59 years), after concluding that its financial losses were too great.

[17] It was immediately replaced, on 1 January 2017, by a new operating company named Sociedad de Transporte de Mendoza (STM), a newly formed single-shareholder public corporation (a Sociedad Anónima Unipersonal, or SAU), a private company that is, however, still owned by the provincial government.

[17] In late 2016, the Villa Nueva and Godoy Cruz–Las Heras routes were being operated by motorbuses due to a shortage of serviceable trolleybuses.

[17] In late March 2017, the provincial transport secretary announced plans to close the trolleybus system entirely by the end of the year.

[18] Later, it was decided that all trolleybus service would be suspended, due to ongoing disruption caused by several construction projects around the city, but would resume late in 2017 on one or more routes—but likely for only a few months before a permanent closure.

[14] Also, only the modern Materfer trolleybuses would return to service, with all remaining ex-Vancouver Flyer vehicles now permanently retired.

For a time, it was used for tourist sightseeing tours, with a revised interior design and a special livery.

[32] A German group, the Obus-Museum Solingen e. V.,[29] helped to secure the return of one of the TS trolleybuses to Germany, for preservation.

[7] In December 2011, more than one-third of the Flyer trolleybuses were reported to be out of service due to chronic maintenance problems.

Except for one preserved locally by the Godoy Cruz Railway Museum, the last 17 Flyers were sold for scrap in April 2018.