LA airport to shuttle Uber, Lyft, taxi customers between terminals and new pickup area: reports
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Need a quick ride home from the airport? If you’ve just arrived in Los Angeles, you’ll soon have to take a shuttle to a parking lot away from the terminal to catch your Uber, Lyft or taxi.
Officials at Los Angeles International Airport plan Friday to announce details of their effort to steer arriving passengers away from traditional curbside pickups, reports say.
Increasing airport traffic congestion – sparked by the emergence of ride-hailing services -- is partly to blame, Keith Wilschetz, deputy executive director of the Operations and Emergency Management Division at Los Angeles World Airports, told the Los Angeles Times.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CONGRESS MMEBERS LOOKING TO PUT AN END TO 'THE MOST-HATED FEE IN TRAVEL'
In addition, LAX has seen passenger traffic rise from 59 million in 2010 to 87.5 million in 2018, according to Skift, a news site that covers the travel industry.
“We understand that trying to get into the central terminal area is a challenge and has been for a long time, and we’ve been working to make that much better,” Wilschetz told The Times. “This is a way we can do that.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“We understand that trying to get into the central terminal area is a challenge and has been for a long time, and we’ve been working to make that much better. This is a way we can do that.”
According to the plan, passengers will wait three to five minutes for a shuttle trip that will take no longer than 15 minutes, the Times reported – or they can choose to walk to the pickup lot instead, a journey estimated to take up to 18 minutes, depending on which terminal the passenger walks from.
Twitter users were expressing mixed reactions to the LAX plan.
"That curbside shuttle from the terminal to the ride share parking lot at LAX is going to run smoooooooooooth," one Twitter user wrote.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"this is the best news i've heard in years," another Twitter user commented.
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The LAX plan follows a similar move at San Francisco International Airport for pickups from its domestic terminals, and an announcement that Boston’s Logan International Airport has a similar plan in the works, the L.A. Times reported.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}It’s also part of LAX’s $14 billion effort to modernize ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics, which will be held in Los Angeles, according to Skift.