If you’ve flown into or out of Dulles Airport and don’t want to pay the rather exorbitant parking fees , you know that your choice of cab companies is limited.
Thanks to the government authority that runs the airport, that isn’t going to change anytime soon:
Three local taxicab companies will share responsibilities for picking up passengers at Dulles International Airport beginning Dec. 1 under a proposal approved Wednesday.
The board of directors of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which operates Dulles and Reagan National airports, endorsed the plan over strong objections from the D.C. government. City officials are upset that District Cab, which had 100 cabs serving Dulles since 2000, was ranked fifth in the evaluation process. D.C. officials estimate the city will lose dozens of jobs and $1.3 million in tax revenue over five years because of the decision.
“We want to bring more business and more jobs to the District,” said H.R. Crawford, an MWAA board member and former D.C. Council member. “The cab company does most of its hiring in Wards 7 and 8. It’s one of the biggest employers in that area. I respect the staff, but D.C. leadership was very upset about this.”
The MWAA board decided to go with two companies from Virginia and one from Maryland, based on rankings provided by authority staff. The contract was awarded to Virginia’s Dulles Taxi Systems, which already provides 530 cabs to the airport, Falls Church-based Dulles Airport Taxi and Baltimore’s Yellow Cab Company. Exact terms of the contract will be negotiated with the companies by James Bennett, the authority’s chief executive officer.
Here’s a radical idea.
Why not just open the field entirely. Let any cab company who thinks they can provide the service compete for the service of flyers coming into the airport and looking for a ride into the District, Maryland, or somewhere in Northern Virginia.
But I’m sure that would just be too chaotic for the simple minded planners at the MWAA.
