UK: Heathrow to treble taxi pick-up fee from July

Heathrow is preparing to nearly triple the fee it charges London’s black cabs collecting passengers from the airport, an increase that drivers warn will be “devastating” to their businesses. Taxis will have to pay GBP10 from July, compared with GBP3.60 at present. The price rise will help Heathrow to recoup the GBP1.4m it lost running the airport taxi rank last year, when passenger numbers collapsed as travel restrictions devastated the aviation industry. Passenger numbers at the airport last year fell to levels not seen since the 1970s, and Heathrow is losing GBP5m per day. But drivers said that increasing the charge for every journey from the airport to GBP10 would mean the work is barely worth their time. Access to Heathrow is tightly controlled, and taxis must queue in a parking area on the outskirts of the airport while waiting to be directed to terminals to collect passengers. Waiting times were about three hours before the pandemic, but have routinely stretched to 24 hours over the past year, according to taxi drivers. To make ends meet, some drivers are doing four to five-day stints “essentially living at the airport” while they queue for passengers, and only returning home to see their families at weekends, said Sam Houston, a driver who is a regular in the queue.<br/>