The Los Angeles International Airport is ranked fourth in the world in terms of passenger count. Last year, the airport witnessed 87.5 million footsteps. Still, in terms of passenger satisfaction, it is ranked second because of its heavy traffic around the airport. This has also become a significant reason for the dissatisfaction of travellers. Increased traveller’s presence, as well as significant congestion, has made also become a critical problem to serve the best for their customers.
On 29th October, the LAX took a strict decision and announced to cut down its traffic. From 29th October, Uber, Lyft, and other rideshare vehicles will be banned from making curbside pickups. Furthermore, a separate lane has been made for shuttle buses to minimize the traffic. The shuttle will carry the passengers from the airports to LAX-it, where the rideshare cabs and booked taxies will be waiting for them. Talking more about the LAX-it, it will encompass all the essential amenities required by the passengers, including food, toilets, etc.
During peak hours, the shuttle will run every three-five hours and can take a maximum of two stops before reaching the LAX-it. For luggage loading and to assist the passengers, the LAX staff will be available at every stop. However, this is not mandatory for everyone to take the shuttle and reach the LAX-it. For passengers who want to avoid the shuttle, they can walk to the LAX-it, which is adjacent to terminal one and barely twenty minutes walk from other terminals.
From the passenger’s end, this seems to be a bit hectic as every passenger prefers reaching their destination without adding more transports in between and waiting (even for a single second) to complete the journey. Not any passengers would ever love to move out of the airport to wait for the next five minutes to reach their cab. Moreover, finding their luggage from the luggage belt, they need to again search for the luggage after reaching the LAX-it, which is also a hectic task.
Talking to many travellers, they clearly mentioned it against the satisfaction of the passengers who reach the LAX after hours of flight. However, they have no other option other than waiting for the shuttle. Keith Wilschetz, Deputy Executive Director for Operations and Emergency Management, talked about this ban and stated that “The Central Terminal is horrible at certain times of the day, and it can take an hour to get out of the airport.”
From a business perspective, Uber and Lyft are mostly affected by this decision. However, the Lyft spokesperson said that they are working on a positive path to find a better solution to omit the congestion without compromising with the passenger’s satisfaction level. On the other hand, Uber has a different prospect on this ban. One of the Uber spokesperson said, “While we have concerns with aspects of LAX’s plan to move all rideshare pickups to a staging lot, we have shared those concerns directly with LAWA and will continue operating at the airport. In the meantime, we hope LAX will listen to and incorporate our input so that LAX passengers can continue to access rideshare service seamlessly.”
