Airport, Latvia, Legislation, Tourism, Transport

The trade union said it was ready to take an active part in the governmental workgroup which is being set up to tackle problems with taxicab services at the airport.

The union of taxi drivers also expressed concerns about the Transport Ministry’s plan to amend the Law on Carriage by Road to restore the previous regulation that only allowed companies licensed by the airport to provide taxicab services in the airport’s territory.

Aksjonovs said that the government and other authorities, including the airport’s administration, declare the necessity to cut taxi fares but at the same time increase the taxi companies’ expenses.

The trade union has issued an appeal to Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics (Unity), Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis (Greens/Farmers), Economics Minister Arvils Aseradens (Unity) and Transport Minister Uldis Augulis (Greens/Farmers), asking for their support in setting fair taxi fares based on taxicab services’ actual costs.

As reported, Prime Minister Kucinskis said on Tuesday that in two weeks a working group would produce specific proposals for dealing with the taxicab issue. The working group comprises representatives of the transport, justice, interior and economics ministries.

Kucinskis said that the Transport Ministry had already drafted the proposals that now have to be reviewed from the legal perspective and for compliance with the competition rules.

The Transport Ministry's parliamentary secretary Edgars Tavars (Greens/Farmers) told LETA that a law had to be passed to give to the government the right to set the tariff ceiling on taxicab services in certain locations yet to be specified but for now it was planned that the new rules would apply to the airport, the passenger port and the railway terminal.

Economics Minister Aseradens told the press that the free market in taxicab services was currently misconstrued and a fixed fare or a maxim fare should be set.

As reported, Latvian Foreign Minister Rinkevics has sent several officials a letter asking to tackle the "taxicab issue" at Riga International Airport because it was a matter of Latvia’s reputation, tourism development and investment attraction. Rinkevics said he had received a number of complaints about the taxicab services at the airport, including the drivers ripping off passengers, particularly foreigners, getting into taxis at the airport.

The airport representatives said they could not do anything about it any longer because the court had annulled the previous arrangement whereby only two taxicab companies using modern vehicles were allowed into the airport's territory to pick up passengers and had to pay the airport a hefty annual fee for the privilege.