It’s going to be a little more expensive to take an Uber, Lyft or shuttle van at Long Beach Airport starting next week.
The changes are intended to boost the airport’s budget and offset declining parking revenue as more passengers shift to rideshare services and other modes of transportation, airport spokeswoman Stephanie Montuya-Morisky said.
The facility is joining Los Angeles County’s other commercial airports in levying fees on each trip ridesharing vehicles make in or out of the airport. Uber, Lyft and other transportation network carriers will see a tariff of $3 each trip. Shuttle vans will be charged $6 a trip. Taxis already pay trip fees of at least $3.
The trip fees are part of an overhaul that also includes changes to annual permit fees for ground transportation vehicles. They will range from $100 to $200 a year, depending on vehicle fleet size.
The higher fees are expected to push ground transportation fee revenue to $1.6 million next year, contributing to a total expected revenue of $44 million in the 2017-18 budget.
The airport saw passenger traffic surge in the first half of this year with 1.85 million passengers, up 47 percent from the first six months of last year.
The new trip fees are generally in line with those at similarly sized Hollywood Burbank Airport, which also charges $3 a trip in or out of the airport for Uber and Lyft vehicles. Los Angeles International Airport charges $4 a trip.
The new fees on ridesharing services did generate initial objections from Uber, said company spokeswoman Stephanie Sedlak. Uber representatives said $3 for both pickups and drop-offs is higher than needed just for the airport to recover costs associated with accommodating the rideshare vehicles.
The Long Beach City Council last month approved the fees over the objection, however, and the company agreed to implement them, Sedlak said.
“Uber supports fees for purposes of cost recovery and understands why (transportation network carriers) need to help fund the costs associated with their presence at airports,” she said.
Some of the fee revenue also would be set aside for future ground transportation-related improvements, airport spokeswoman Montuya-Morisky said.
– Howard Fine
