POLITICS: Bungling LAX board drives up Uber costs

We have an affordability crisis in California.

It’s even more acute in LA.

And the board that governs LAX deems it a good idea to slap new charges on Lyft and Uber rides to and from the airport?

Good grief.

LAX is a mess, and the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners badly needs to improve its management of the sprawling air hub.

Instead, they’re raising ride-share fees by up to 140% — on short notice and with little public debate.

Talk about a bad idea right out of the gate …

This is the same board that’s bungled a People Mover project — years behind schedule, $1 billion over budget — intended to help passengers traverse the the airport without long walks or waits. 


Now, the board wants to stick the traveling public with a $100 million bill in the form of higher ride-share costs.

That means a $12-each-way pickup and drop-off fee for the central terminal, up from about $5 now.

The hike will especially slam low- and moderate-income travelers already struggling to cover groceries, rent and the occasional family vacation.

How out of touch are commissioners?

Signs point to “very.”

Board members said the fee hikes will go toward airport improvements — ahem, cost overruns? — while cutting the number of cars clogging airport terminals. 

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They also said that Uber and Lyft should absorb the cost hikes rather than passing them on to travelers.

But the board should have budgeted for airport upgrades already — and better managed key projects to prevent spiraling costs.

And it’s far from clear that higher fees will cut terminal congestion rather than simply inflating costs for the same miserable experience.

Nor will Lyft and Uber just eat the higher fees (and if they did, how would that curb consumer demand for airport rides?).

Instead, passengers will either pay more, or ride-share firms will stop serving the airport so often — leaving travelers with fewer options and even more expensive Uber rides.

None of this serves the more than 70 million passengers who use LAX each year.

It seems the average Californian, slammed at every turn by endless taxes, fees, surcharges, cost hikes, and more — can catch neither a break nor an affordable Uber to LAX.

The bungling airport commissioners need to do better.