Your next trip to or from LAX might soon get more expensive if you’re grabbing a taxi or turning to a phone app for a ride.
On Tuesday, board members for the Los Angeles World Airports approved a fee hike for private transportation companies that pick up and drop off passengers at Los Angeles International Airport. The access fee increase affects companies such as Uber, Lyft, as well as taxi and limousine companies that operate at the airport.
The fee increase is not set to go into effect until the airport’s long-awaited automated people mover, known as Skylink, opens in the summer. Airport officials said the rate increase, as well as Skylink, are part of a plan to ease congestion inside LAX as passengers try to access terminals and to encourage alternatives such as Skylink.
But some drivers, passengers and ride-hailing companies are already fretting the prospect of pricier rides.
“L.A. residents shouldn’t have to pay a premium to visit their own airport,” said Brandon Bailey, a resident who spoke against the rate hike at Tuesday morning’s meeting. “It’s a tax on workers trying to get home.”
In an email sent to customers Monday, Uber warned that the proposal “would more than double the fees you pay to get picked up or dropped off.”
But airport officials emphasized access fees are assessed to the companies, not customers or drivers, and pointed out that LAX hasn’t increased its fees since Uber and Lyft began operating there in 2015.
“This is not a tax,” Commissioner Vanessa Armayo said. “This is not something that the airport is putting on passengers or travelers.”
But drivers and passengers said they expected to absorb the costs in the end, either through higher prices or lower pay per ride.
“Usually we take the hit,” said Terrence Harden, a ride-hailing driver who spoke during Tuesday’s meeting. “It’s already tough enough in this airport every day.”
Officials with Uber and Lyft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The decision on who pays the increased fees is ultimately up to the companies, LAWA Chief Executive John Ackerman said.
“We can’t control what a private company does to punish consumers, punish drivers,” he said.
At LAX and other major airports around the world, private transportation companies such as Uber and Lyft, as well as taxis and limousines, are required to get permits and operating agreements and pay a fee to access the airport property and pick up and drop off customers.
Uber and Lyft currently pay $4 to pick up passengers at the airport and nothing to drop them off.
The proposed access fees for all private transportation, including hailed rides, would increase to $12 for the terminal area and $6 for the Skylink area.
In a staff report to the six-member commission, LAWA staff wrote that the fees “no longer reflect the value of the airport market, especially given the multi-billion dollar investments in LAX landed access, terminals, and other facilities and and amenities.”
The higher fees come as the board looks to modernize LAX ahead of a several high-profile events including the World Cup this summer, the 2027 Super Bowl and 2028 Olympics.
With up to 100,000 cars going through LAX a day, David Reich, deputy executive director for mobility strategy for Los Angeles World Airports, said the airport needs to find alternatives.
“It’s no longer sustainable and it hasn’t been for a long time,” Reich said Tuesday. “We’re going to remove a lot of vehicles.”
Armayo also asked staff to conduct a report six months after the fees are increased to determine whether the fees have been passed on to drivers and passengers.
The fees would not go into effect until Skylink opens to the public. No official date has been given.
Skylink, which was originally set to open in 2023, faced a series of delays, many caused by clashes between the airport and the contractor hired to build it, LAX Integrated Express Solutions.
The train is expected to provide an alternative way for travelers to access the airport, offering a drop-off location away from the main terminal area and a ride across airport terminals that would take, at the most, nine minutes.
The train is set to open early this summer and expected to operate around the clock. LAWA officials estimate the train would move about 85 million passengers a year, and stress that the continuous increase of vehicle traffic into the airport is not an option.
The fees are expected to bring in as much as $100 million to the airport in the first year after Skylink is opened.
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