1 in 2 airport taxis a rip-off

A new get-tough campaign on airport taxi overcharging has revealed the wide extent of the problem, with every second taxi going to Prague's Ruzyně Airport found to be ripping passengers off.

Police told The Prague Post that some taxi drivers were "preying on foreign visitors," and that the campaign aimed to "get rid of unfair taxi drivers."

"By their actions, they do harm to the name of Prague Airport, our capital and the whole Czech Republic," said Kateřina Rendlová, spokeswoman for the Foreigners Police.

Since mid-January, the Foreigners Police, together with local officials and city police, have carried out 29 sets of spot checks on taxis arriving at the airport.

During the checks, passengers were asked how much they had paid, and drivers were asked to provide a copy of their receipts.

Of 774 cars checked, 225 drivers were fined a total of 133,000 Kč ($6,800) both for overcharging and for breaking traffic rules.

Seventy-eight drivers were referred to administrative proceedings under the Trade Licensing Act, in which they could face higher fines.

The cars checked included both official and unofficial airport taxis. Two firms, AAA Taxis and 111 Taxi have been operating as the official airport transport providers since May 2010, following a public tender last fall.

The airport has described the police figures as being out of context. Michaela Lagronová, spokeswoman for Ruzyně Airport, told The Prague Post that the spot checks covered just 0.15 percent of half a million airport taxi journeys taken since the start of the year.

She claimed that the checks were concentrated on "problematic taxi drivers who work here illegally by parking in short-term spaces."

Lagronová added that "the situation was already better" after the new contracts began in May.

"Only AAA and 111 Taxi are allowed to park directly in front of the terminals, and they do operate for guaranteed prices," she said. "Other taxis are not allowed to do business in the airport area - they are breaking the operating rules of the airport."

The spokeswoman said the airport had cooperated with the police crackdown even though they believed the official providers were "working well."

"We do not have any complaints now, only compliments by satisfied travelers," she said.

Jiří Kvasnička, owner of AAA Taxi, told The Prague Post that he supported the crackdown, and said it should be extended to include taxis departing from the airport en route to the city center.

"I would actually appreciate it if someone would do that. I am really not afraid of these checks. They can only help us clean up our staff," he said.

A taxi ride between the airport and the city center is supposed to cost a base rate of 600 Kč ($30). Some drivers were found to have charged as much as 5,000 Kč ($255) for the trip.

Another popular option for visitors is to pre-book their taxi ride with companies that allow passengers to pay in advance online. Prague Airport Transfers, for example, offers a one-way ride into the city on its website starting at 550 Kč for one passenger.

- Filip Šenk contributed to this report.

More on this story:

Word on the Street: Taxi Fares 

Bill Lehane can be reached at
blehane@praguepost.com