The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority may push travelers to dig deeper into their pockets. The body is planning to raise the fee in the transportation network by about 1%.
A close outlook
This change will affect the app-based businesses such as Uber Technologies Inc (NYSE:UBER) and LYFT Inc (NASDAQ:LYFT).
Travelers might feel the pinch since the increased charges may be pushed down to them by these companies. Such companies usually make payments to pick and drop passengers in various places, including airports.
At the moment, the fee stands at $4 for each trip.
Reports indicate that the transportation network companies have been witnessing major increases in annual transactions. Analysts have pointed out this as one of the reasons for the uptick. They add that the growth may be sustainable, looking at statistics.
There is the dark side of the increased traffic. It is resulting in poor service delivery to customers with quite a significant number of them launching complaints lately.
Dulles is unhappy with what is happening about the poor services to customers. In this effect, it is resorting to strategies to improve matters. One of the ways will be to reduce congestion, which it intends to achieve by slashing a percentage of the parking fees.
The turn of events
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority has revealed that it will commit its next board meeting to discuss the fee.
On the other hand, Uber has expressed its dissatisfaction with the turn of events. Its spokesperson
, in a recent interview,
disclosed that they had expressed their frustration to the body.
The Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and the Dulles International Airport are charging quite high rates. Sources indicate that they could be charging higher than the rest in the country. The San Francisco International, John F. Kennedy International, Los Angeles International, and LaGuardia all charge lower than these two.
Uber has pointed out to four of the biggest US-based airports and their decision to lower their TNC fee proposals. It has also spoken about the decision by the Logan Airport situated in Boston to lower its fee proposal. The company thinks that this should have been the trajectory of things and not what is happening at the moment.
