SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE AIRPORTS IMPOSE A CHARGE ON EVERY TAXI THAT PICKS UP PASSENGERS. IS THIS COMMON?
The practice is not unusual. Take a taxi from the airport rank at Melbourne Airport and you’ll pay an additional $2.70 on top of the metered fare.
In Sydney the same charge has recently been increased to $4, but these two cities are not exceptional.
Brisbane Airport imposes an access fee of $3.30 on any taxi departing with passengers on board.
At Perth’s airport, it’s $2.
At airports overseas the surcharge varies widely. In Singapore it’s S5 ($4.30) for journeys originating from 5.00pm to 12.00am between Friday and Sunday, S$3 ($2.60) at all other times.
Catch a taxi from the rank at London Heathrow and the driver will add £2.80 ($5.10) to the fare.
In Bangkok the surcharge is 50 baht ($1.70), at Dallas/Fort Worth it’s US$5 ($5.35) and US$4 ($4.27) at Los Angeles.
At Frankfurt, New York’s JFK, Rome and Paris there is no extra charge.
The reason for the taxi surcharge is easy to fathom. In 2013, Sydney Airport’s revenue from car parking and ground transport was $132.3 million, thanks in part to the revenue collected from each passenger who took a cab from the airport.
