Passengers who enter or leave airports in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi will have to cough up an additional amount if they use online cabs or commercial vehicles other than airport taxis.
The recently privatised Thiruvananthapuram airport charges the highest amount of ₹150, while the Cochin International Airport charges ₹60 on commercial vehicles. However, the public-private-partnership (PPP)-managed airport in Kannur and the Airports Authority of India-run Karipur airport do not charge any extra fee for commercial vehicles.
Pressure from airport taxis
According to sources, the Thiruvananthapuram airport imposed the entry fee because of the pressure exerted by the airport taxis. Most air passengers prefer online cabs due to their affordable pricing. This affected the revenue of airport taxis to a large extent, following which they started pressuring airport managements to impose an entry fee on commercial vehicles, who in turn passed it on to the passengers. If the passengers do not want to pay the entry fee, they would have to walk to the cabs that would wait outside the airport.
“It is a harrowing experience for an average passenger, as the charges of airport taxis are higher than app-based cabs. To protect the interests of a relatively small number of cabs inside the airport, the authorities are punishing thousands of passengers,” said R.S. Vinu, a resident of Thiruvananthapuram. Further, the airports have been making a significant amount of money too through this, he added.
