Naia allows regular taxis to pick up passengers in arrival area

Taxi drivers wait for passengers. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/Richard Reyes

Regular white taxis on Monday have been allowed to pick up passengers in the arrival area of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in hopes of easing the long lines in taxi bays that plague travelers coming from the airport.

In a report from the Philippine News Agency, Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) General Manager Eddie Villanueva Monreal said that regular taxis are now allowed in the airport because there are not enough accredited taxis to cater to the volume of international and domestic passengers arriving every day.

While yellow airport taxis are readily available in the NAIA arrival area, commuters prefer the regular taxis with a flag down rate of P30, resulting in long lines in the departure area, the only area where they were previously allowed. Airport taxis have a higher flag down rate of P70.

Monreal reminded that drivers of regular taxis will have to comply with the rules and regulations of the MIAA.

Monreal also commended the previous management’s initiative of allowing accredited buses and app-based transportation services. Aside from regular and airport taxis, passengers can also choose to use Grab, a taxi-hailing mobile app that is also accredited and allowed to operate in NAIA.

A 24-hour airport bus system, operated by bus company AIR21 under the brand name UBE Express, has been launched by the Department of Transportation and MIAA after the success of the Premium Point-to-Point (P2P) bus service. The bus system will ferry passengers to and from NAIA with a flat rate of P300. Czarina Fernandez, INQUIRER.net trainee/JE/rga

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