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Uber & Lyft Drivers Will Soon Be Charged For Pickups At Burbank Airport
Bob Hope Airport (Photo by Karol Franks via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)
Burbank's Bob Hope Airport, the chill brother of LAX, will soon be charging Uber and Lyft drivers a fee for pickups.
While drop-offs wouldn't be affected—ride-share drivers can still drop off passengers curbside—it's the pickups that would change. As part of a three-year interim agreement that was approved during a recent Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority board meeting, Uber and Lyft drivers will have to pick up passengers in a designated area in the short-term parking garage to avoid causing gridlock curbside, according to the L.A. Times. The drivers would have to pay a minimum fee of $3 for the first half hour.
LAX approved a similar measure in August, where the airport would charge $4 for ride-sharing pickups and drop-offs. The Times reports that the LAX fee would probably get passed on to passengers. It's not clear if the Bob Hope Airport would do the same, though we imagine it would, too. The LAX measure, though, is taking a long time to go into effect. It was slated to launch over the summer, but sources familiar with the permitting process told the Times it could even drag on to Thanksgiving or the end of the year.
If ride-share drivers violate Bob Hope Airport's rules, like picking up riders curbside, then the service will be written up with a violation. If there are three violations in 60 days, that means the service will be suspended for six months at the airport. And if there are still more violations, then the service could be permanently banned from accessing the airport.
Uber said in a statement that they plan on working with the new measure. "We are reviewing the recently approved plan closely and look forward to working with airport officials to make ride-sharing pickups and drop-offs available at Burbank-Bob Hope...for the long term," said Michael Amodeo, a spokesman for Uber.
Charging ride-share companies for drop-offs and pickups is a big deal for Bob Hope Airport, which has been hurting financially due to losing revenue from people choosing to use the services instead of paying to leave their cars at the airport's short-term parking garage. These fees could earn the airport $2,700 per month. Dan Feger, the airport's executive director, said this interim measure will deal with these problems "until we can come up with a more comprehensive program."
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