Orlando International Airport, one of the busiest air hubs in the United States, has announced plans to hike up rideshare fees.
Uber officials say this rate change will make the airport the most expensive airport they operate at in the country to hitch an Uber ride.
Under an agreement the company has with MCO, the airport requires a TNC fee on all Uber pickups and dropoffs at the airport. (Lyft also has an added fee agreement with the airport.) This TNC fee, specific to airports, is on top of the booking fee riders already pay.
“It’s a 20 percent increase,” Uber spokesperson Javi Correoso told Fox News 35. “It is going to have a pretty substantial negative impact on, you know, the thousands of people that use Uber every day to either earn as drivers on our platform at the airport or use it to get to and from the airport for their travel plan.”
Currently, the pickup fee for Uber is $5.80, but it’s set to rise to $6.35 in August, then $7 in October, according to Uber officials.
Uber told WESH that, in comparison, the fee at Tampa International Airport is $5, and at Miami International Airport, it’s just $2.
Kevin Thibault, CEO of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority — which oversees the airport’s operations — reportedly said that the 20% fee hike was approved by the aviation board in September 2022.
“This is an issue that was negotiated and resolved when the operating agreement was signed in July of 2017, and we are not renegotiating it,” said Thibault. “These fee increases were already approved by the authority board in September 2022 and there is no reason to bring them back to the board.”
Local Uber and Lyft drivers — who are classified by the company as contractors, not employees — have decried increases to rideshare fees in recent years, in no small part because they say it’s the company, not the drivers themselves, who see any raise from that fee hike. Plus, customers get frustrated with them, the drivers, when they have no authority to alter their rates.
With higher fees coming to MCO, passengers may try to find alternative methods of transportation to and from the airport, or suffer the higher costs of catching an Uber or Lyft ride, come August.
This comes at a time of high inflation and a higher cost of living in Orlando. This could affect passengers of rideshare services, as well as drivers working to make ends meet, should their business be impacted.
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