The growth of ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft has been both a boon for travelers going to and from airports, and also a bit of a bane for the airports themselves.
Ride-hailing firms have made it easier on travelers by giving them another option for getting to their flights on time, and then get back home, without having to take their own cars and pay for what can be high airport parking fees. However, the rise of such services has also resulted in more traffic congestion at terminal curbsides, and more frustration with drivers jockeying for position to pick up and drop off their fares.
The situation has caused some airports to re-evaluate their policies toward not only ride-hailing companies, but traditional taxis, too. In June, San Francisco International Airport (SFO) shifted all domestic-flight pickups for Uber, Lyft and other transportation network companies (TNC) to its domestic hourly parking garage. SFO, which saw 5.7 million passengers pass through its doors in August, said it made that move after efforts to reduce pickups along terminal curbsides by such services failed to reach the airport’s targets.
But, are the Bay Area’s other two major airports ready to follow suit? Not necessarily.
Rosemary Barnes, a spokeswoman for San Jose’s Norman Mineta International Airport (SJC), said the airport is “fully aware” of the ride-hailing changes made at SFO and elsewhere, but that for now, SJC has “no specific details to share at this time” about any plans it might have to move pickups by Uber, Lyft and others away from outside the airport’s terminals.
SJC saw 299,597 taxi and TNC trips in August, an increase of 14.7% over the same period in 2018. And it’s no secret who is providing the vast majority of those rides as TNC company rides in August rose 17.4% from a year ago, to 289,537, while traditional taxi rides fell by 30.6%, to 10,060.
“SJC continues to review options for moving ride-hailing pickups from their current locations curbside at the Terminal A baggage claim and the Terminal B ground transportation island to another location,” Barnes said. “The reason for this is there is limited curbside space outside our terminals and there is ongoing congestion and growing demand from our customers in using these services.”
This issue of increased airport traffic from TNCs received more attention this week when, on Tuesday, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) implemented a ban on curbside pickups by such ride providers and taxis. Travelers now must either walk to a designated pickup area east of the airport’s Terminal 1 to get a ride, or use what is called the “LAXit” system and board a shuttle bus to an off-site location where they can meet their rides.
The LAXit system didn’t get off without a hitch, as many travelers reported waits of an hour or more to get to the ride pick-up area.
In response to the LAX situation, Lyft general manager Elliot Greenberger said the company has an “experienced team on the ground making real-time adjustments to improve our operations for both riders and drivers.” A spokesperson for Uber added that it was “working with LAX to resolve some of the early issues for riders who saw increased wait times during the first day of LAXit. We continue to monitor the new pickup operation.”
At Oakland International Airport, which handled 211,979 TNC trips during September, an 11% increase over a year ago, and 1.13 million passengers during the month, the issues involved with traffic congestion from ride-hailing companies isn’t an issue at all.
When asked if OAK has an plans to ban ride-hailing firms from making pickups at the airport’s terminals, spokeswoman Keonnis Taylor replied simply, “No.”
“OAK has ample capacity to accommodate TNCs at our available curbside positions,” Taylor said. “There is no foreseeable reason to move TNCs at OAK from their current locations.”
