Rideshare woes: Sky Harbor wants to raise ride prices by $5
PHOENIX - If you use Uber and Lyft to get to and from Sky Harbor, you could soon be paying a lot more to do so. The airport wants to increase the fees by as much as $5. This would make Sky Harbor one of the most expensive airports for rideshare users.
We mentioned this to travelers at Sky Harbor and they all had a strong reaction. Now, this hasn't passed, but it is up for a vote. As you can imagine, many people we spoke to were not happy about this.
Airports want to raise Uber and Lyft prices and fees could go up as much as $5. People waiting to be picked up at the airport are responding to the news that they may be paying a lot more for a ride to and from the airport.
"It would be nicer if they could do it a little more gradual than a big bump," said Becky Phelps.
"I usually take an Uber of a Lyft because it's reliable, fast, and economical — [it] makes my trip easy," said Carla Rotering.
Right now, riders pay $2.60 for pickup only, but the airport is now proposing a fee for both pickup and dropoff. It's $4 both ways, making it $8 total roundtrip by 2020, increasing to $10 roundtrip by 2024.
"If the prices got too high, then yeah, it would be a concern if I could use them or not," Phelps said.
This would be a 200% increase in fees and the airport says 80% of the funding would go toward the costs for the sky train. Both Uber and Lyft have responded in a statement.
Lyft says:
Uber responded by saying:
This vote will be scheduled to go to Phoenix City Council on Oct. 16. We reached out to the city and city councilors and did not hear back.