The annual holiday scramble to New York City’s airports is in full swing. And for most travelers, it will involve ever more costly rides in Ubers, Lyfts and yellow cabs that frequently charge more than $100 each way.
Those fares are bound to go higher as airport officials prepare to raise the charge for drivers to pick up and in some cases drop off passengers at the airports, a move that is being contested by Uber and ride-share drivers. The airports would use the increased fees to provide more amenities and better conditions for the drivers, who have become critical cogs in the region’s air-travel network.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the three major airports that serve the New York metropolitan region — LaGuardia, John F. Kennedy International and Newark Liberty International — currently charges taxis $1.75 for each pickup at any of the three. But it charges Ubers, Lyfts, black cars and limousines $2.50 for each airport pickup and each drop-off.
In March, the agency plans to start raising those fees in three annual steps. The fee for yellow cab pickups will rise in to 25-cent increments to $2.50, while the charge for pickups and drop-offs by the others will rise to $5.
“Taxis have struggled over time, and the fee structure takes note of that,” Rick Cotton, the longtime executive director of the Port Authority, said. He said that airports in some American cities charged drivers considerably more for access.
Orlando International Airport raised its pickup fee for ride shares to $7 in 2023. This year, the operators of Boston Logan International Airport had considered raising the fee for Ubers and Lyfts to $7.50 for each pickup and drop-off, but settled on increasing it to $5.50 each.
Uber protested the Port Authority’s proposed increases, arguing that it would be unfair to double the charge to “$10 round-trip,” or four times the fee a yellow cab would pay for arriving at an airport with a passenger and leaving with a different one.
“The biggest problem we have is that if you are a yellow taxi customer, you don’t have to pay anything to get dropped off at the airport” in New York or Newark, said Josh Gold, a spokesman for Uber.
The new proposed fees are expected to be passed on to riders, who already pay hefty fares to get to and from the airports. New York City’s Taxi & Limousine Commission has a set fee of $70 for cab rides between Manhattan to Kennedy (not counting tips, tolls, a $5 surcharge during afternoon rush hours, a congestion charge for entering Manhattan below 96th Street of up to $2.75, an additional 75 cents for entering the congestion-pricing zone below 60th Street and $1.50 in other surcharges).
The cost of taxi rides from other parts of the city to Kennedy and those to and from LaGuardia are determined by the meter and depend largely on how much traffic is encountered along the route. Taxi trips between the city and Newark Liberty are supposed to be determined by the meter, plus a $20 surcharge, tips and tolls.
Still, most travelers who rely on hired drivers choose an option that usually is even more expensive: Uber or Lyft.
On Monday, when heavy preholiday demand was driving up the cost of ride shares, Uber rides from Manhattan to Kennedy were being quoted at $140 to $155. Lyft rides from Downtown Brooklyn were priced at about $100 to Kennedy and $80 to LaGuardia. Ubers to LaGuardia were priced at about $100 from Manhattan and $110 from Downtown Brooklyn.
The last two weeks of the year are among the busiest at the three airports. The Port Authority said on Monday that it expected a record 5.7 million travelers to pass through them between Dec. 22 and Jan. 4, with the biggest crowds coming on Dec. 22 and Dec. 28.
The Port Authority had hoped to reduce LaGuardia’s dependence on hired drivers by building an AirTrain transit link to the subway system. But Gov. Kathy Hochul directed the agency to scrap that plan in 2023, leaving city buses as the only public transit option to LaGuardia. Since then, the Port Authority has more fully embraced Uber, Lyft and the taxi industry as partners.
Nearly 1 million ride-share vehicles arrive at LaGuardia every month, accounting for about 40 percent of all trips to that airport, according to data compiled by the Port Authority.
The agency is giving extra attention to cabdrivers, spending large sums on taxi holding lots, complete with toilets, places to wash up and pray or meditate and space for food trucks.
In addition, the agency now plans to spend $100 million over 10 years on an effort it calls “Operation Legal Ride” to root out unsanctioned drivers who try to pick up passengers at the airports. Mr. Cotton said the money would go toward license-plate readers, closed-circuit camera systems and other technology to help the Port Authority Police Department and the local police to root out “hustlers,” who sidle up to arriving travelers and offer rides.
“Hustling is organized crime on Port Authority property, and it is an outrage,” Mr. Cotton said. “They seriously degrade the airport experience for many travelers.”
Mr. Cotton said the “hustlers” tend to prey on foreign travelers arriving at Kennedy and Newark Liberty during less busy times. To ensure that those travelers have a safer, more regulated option, the Port Authority plans to continue favoring the taxi industry.
Patrick McGeehan is a Times reporter who covers the economy of New York City and its airports and other transportation hubs.
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