Airports Authority Of India Partners With Ola and Uber For Airport Commute; Now Book Cabs At Kiosks

Except Bengaluru, every airport in India has one major problem: Hailing a cab booked via Ola or Uber. Often, once you exit from the airport, here is the scene which materializes:

• Step 1: You book a cab via Ola or Uber
• Step 2: Call the driver, and explain where you are standing
• Step 3: Driver doesn’t understand, and you repeat.
• Step 4: Go to step 2 until the cab arrives.

But not any more!

Airports Authority of India, the body which maintains and develops airports all over the country has now partnered with Uber and Ola for opening up kiosks across the airports.

This means that commute from airport will now become easier, and more time-saving.

Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport has already a special zone for hailing cabs – both app based (Ola/Uber) and local taxis.

The same model would be now expanded to 5 more cities, and to 125+ airports eventually.

5 Airports To Get Kiosks For Uber/Ola Cabs

Airports Authority of India or AAI has agreed to set up kiosks for booking cabs via Ola and Uber, and setting up a designated area for hailing such cabs.

Thus, gone are the days when you were required to hop around the airport, trying to locate your cab, and wasting time.

In a statement, AAI said, “This alliance with Ola and Uber shall also facilitate air passengers to book a cab through the booking kiosks located at the airports itself. This will reduce the hassle of waiting or moving out for such app based cabs,”

The 5 airports where these kiosks would be set up are: Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Lucknow and Bhubaneswar.

Airport Commute: Why These 5 Airports?

As per AAI, these 5 airports are among the busiest, up and coming airports of India. Approximately 50 lakh passengers pass through these 5 airports in a year.

Overall, India’s domestic air travel is growing at a past pace of 10-15% per year, the execution of these special kiosks based app-bookings in these 5 upcoming cities can prove to be a good case study to expand the same in other cities.

AAI manages 125 airports in India.

Ola has welcomed this decision, and have announced setting up Ola Zone, same as they have done in Bengaluru. As per Ola, cabs would arrive within 2 minutes to their Ola Zone.

Saurabh Mishra, Director – Alliances at Ola said, “This partnership is sure to add convenience, accessibility and reliability to the lives of millions of passengers moving in and out of the city,”

Note here, that the concept of special designated zones and kiosks have been in place for traditional cab companies since long. Kiosks for Meru Cabs, Easy Cabs and others have been in major airports since last couple of years.

It would be interesting to observe how this new arrangement helps Ola/Uber to grab more market share.