CPH to make more room for taxis
If CPH is to have room to continue to grow, the often very extensive taxi pile-up around the airport must be alleviated. CPH is therefore inviting tenders for a Taxi Management system for taxi rides worth DKK 650 million. This system will ensure that the taxi services required will continue to be available as the airport grows – for the benefit of passengers, taxi drivers and taxicab owners.
Taxis piling up outside terminals, car parks, car rentals and the airport's busiest road, Ellehammervej, will soon be a thing of the past. In an effort to alleviate the problem, CPH is introducing a Taxi Management system similar to the ones in use at the Stockholm, Oslo, Frankfurt and Paris airports.
The system will be part of a tender for taxi services which all taxicab operators currently serving the airport are invited to participate in. The three-year contract covers taxi rides worth about DKK 650 million.
And there is every indication that this amount will grow in the years ahead. In 2014 alone, the number of taxi rides to and from the airport has grown by 50,000.
“Copenhagen Airport is growing rapidly – on the runways, in the terminals and in the areas in front of the airport. In all probability, we will have more than 25 million travellers this year. More travellers means greater demand for taxis;" said Copenhagen Airport's head of passenger service, Marie-Louise Lotz.
"Making room for this growth in future requires more than just expanding the airport. We need a far more modern taxi management system so that we can continue to meet the demand for taxis as traffic at the airport grows,” she said.
1.35 million taxi rides
According to a report from January prepared by the Taxi Council in the Capital Region, more than one in ten taxi rides in the metropolitan area is to or from the airport – a total of 1.35 million rides per year.
The new intelligent Taxi Management system is based on a BroBizz-like concept using toll bars, a forecasting tool and a taxi depot to make sure that the exact number of taxis required is always available.
A new taxi assembly area will be established near the Hotel Hilton to prevent taxis from piling up from the terminals all the way down the airport's busiest road, Ellehammervej.
The new system will ensure much more precise communication between the airport and the taxi dispatch centres and taxicab owners, providing current updates on the number of taxis required. This will reduce the number of idle taxis and unnecessary waiting time and at the same time free up taxis to take other rides in the Greater Copenhagen area.
Swedish taxis may continue to operate at Copenhagen Airport Just like today, both Swedish taxis and non-metropolitan taxis will be able to operate at Copenhagen Airport. The rules applying today will continue to apply in future.
This means that passengers may still book their local taxi operator to pick them up at the airport, and the special agreement regarding Swedish taxis will also continue to apply. However, all taxis using the system will be required to contribute to financing the taxi management system. The detailed terms and conditions will be determined in spring.
Facts about the tender:
• In line with other private-sector companies like Novo Nordisk, Novozymes and Haldor Topsøe, Copenhagen Airports A/S will be tendering taxi services from the airport in an open tender process to be held at the beginning of 2015. The funding and current operation of the systems will be payable by the successful tenderers.
• The tender and the new system will be profit-neutral for Copenhagen Airports A/S. The expected annual cost of establishing and operating Taxi Management of DKK 17 million will be payable by the successful tenderers. The tender will generate revenue to the tune of DKK 650 million over the next three years. Whether taxi fares will go up as a result is up to the taxi industry.