0 Illegal taxis at Ngurah Rai airport, a hassle for visitors

Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali is being urged to improve its taxi service, which is currently the only official public transportation mode available connecting the airport with anywhere on the island. Pushy unregistered taxi drivers, and even motorcycle taxi (ojek) drivers, offering unreasonable tariffs are still nagging and roaming around the airport compound, which is now undergoing a major facelift for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in October. 

“A man, who was not wearing a taxi uniform, approached me at the exit gate of Ngurah Rai’s domestic terminal. He offered me his taxi service. When I told him no, he kept pushing and following me all the way to the parking lot. An airport officer saw what happened but stood still in silence,” said an upset passenger, Kristiawan, who then quickly bargained with another driver wearing a taxi driver’s uniform and left for his Denpasar home with an Rp 80,000 (US$8.28) deal. 

Kristiawan was not the only passenger coming across pushy unregistered taxi drivers at Ngurah Rai airport. A traveler, Pradani Hanggoro, wrote on travbuddy.com about her experience when she almost took a cab offering an expensive tariff at Ngurah Rai airport last year. “A taxi driver came to us and said that we could go to our guesthouse [in Kuta] for Rp 75,000. It was insane, [as] it took only 15 minutes to our guesthouse. We stood there bargaining over the price, but the driver was really stubborn. 

So my friend went to the taxi service [booth] to check on the real tariff. [We] got the lower price at the taxi service [booth]. We only paid Rp 50,000 from the airport to Kuta,” she wrote. The nagging presence of unregistered drivers, to some extent, is influenced by the demand and supply factor — when some people prefer to bargain than pay a fixed rate, surely, their demands will be answered by the presence of unregistered drivers. The operational manager at Ngurah Rai airport, Efferson Siregar, acknowledged to Bali Daily on Thursday that although the airport provided an official booth to place orders for the taxi service, in reality, unregistered drivers continued to flourish. 

“We have continually urged passengers to use the available official taxi service. We have placed signboards to direct passengers to the booth, and we have limited car parking licenses for these taxis,” said Efferson, listing his office’s efforts to reduce the presence of unregistered taxis. Efferson said that all official taxi services were centered at the booth close to the terminal’s arrival gate. “There are three types of taxi service: Taxis with fixed tariff based on different zones, taxis using a meter, and chartered taxis. Basically, those offering services outside the booth are unregistered.” 

According to the airport’s official website (ngurahrai-airport.co.id), the current fixed tariff for Ngurah Rai airport taxi services, which have been applied since 2008, is differentiated into 48 zones, which include, Denpasar I – Bali Hotel Denpasar (Rp 70,000); Denpasar II – Renon, Tanjung Bungkak, Kereneng (Rp 85,000); Denpasar III – Jl. Nangka Selatan, Jl. Ratna and Jl. Akasia (Rp 90,000); Jimbaran I – Intercontinental (Rp 60,000); Jimbaran II – Four Seasons (Rp 75,000); Kuta Discovery and Bakungsari (Rp 45,000); Kuta Center – Jl Melasti (Rp 50,000); Legian (Rp 55,000); Pecatu (Rp 115,000); Sanur/Nusa Dua (Rp 95,000); Seminyak (Rp 60,000); and Uluwatu (Rp 135,000).

source : bali daily