YLW and Uber continue to work toward agreement to allow pickups at the airport

Airport, Uber continue talks

Photo: Cindy White - file

Negotiations between Uber and YLW to allow the ride sharing giant to pick up and drop off passengers at the Kelowna airport are continuing.

Airport manager Sam Samaddar says those negotiations are "going well."

Uber is presently the only company unable to pickup or drop off passengers at the airport since YLW instituted a new fee structure in May of 2021.

"We do have a full agreement with U-Ride and all the other cab companies," Samaddar told Castanet.

Under the new fee structure all ride sharing and taxi companies are required to pay a flat fee of $2 for every trip to and from the airport greater than three kilometres.

That replaced the flat yearly fee of $638 charged per cab or transportation network service vehicle to operate at the airport.

Samaddar says they are getting close to the finish line and is hopeful everything can be worked out in about a month.

Agreement close at hand

"We are very, very close.

"Our goal from day one was to always create a level playing field between the taxis and shared ride services and we put all these measures in place well before Uber and U-Ride came along.

"We made our applications to the Passenger Transportation Board, got approvals on all the things that we did and we created that level playing field. We just need to ensure those agreements and the way we administer those agreements, whether it's shared ride services or taxis, are maintained on that level playing field."