Noi Bai Airport hardens taxi regulations

The Vietnam Automobile Transport Association has complained that the length of service of a taxi car was unreasonably cut from eight to six years by managers of Noi Bai Airport.

Taxis operate at Noi Bai International Airport

Nguyen Duc Hung, director of Noi Bai Airport, said the rules on how to select taxi firms to operate at Noi Bai Airport was set up in 2014 in accordance with the laws. The rules aim to find capable, experienced firms to improve the airport's services.

However, many firms have opposed, saying that Noi Bai Airport violated Resolution 86 on transportation businesses. The resolution states that a taxi can work for eight years in special urban areas and 12 years elsewhere.

Chairman of Vietnam Automobile Transport Association Nguyen Van Thanh said Noi Bai Airport was an important location, not to mention that it is under state-owned Airports Corporation of Vietnam, so it needed to follow the regulations.

Thanh also suggested scrapping the rules to only let selected firms pick up passengers from Noi Bai Airport. About 1,300 taxis and 28 electric cars under 17 firms have contracts to work at the airport. Those who don't have contracts can only drop off passengers and return to the city's centre empty.

"This is such a waste because they have to run without passengers for dozens of kilometres. The airport can charge some fees from all taxi firms to pick up passengers. The Ministry of Transport must review this quickly and work out how the money collected from contracted firms are being used," he said.

Last year, Noi Bai Airport served 20.6 million passengers. This year the number is estimated to reach 22 million as 65,000 passengers use the airport daily.