Chukiat Panyawai, President of the Phuket Business Car Service Cooperative Limited, submitted the formal complaint to Rewat Areerob, President of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organisation (PPAO), on Wednesday (Sept 6).
Present to receive the letter was the PPAO Executive board, including Chanjira Srisongkram, head of the PPAO legal department. Also present was Worrawit Srisakukammeet, Village Chief (Phu Yai Baan) of Moo 6 in Mai Khao, as a representative of local taxi drivers at the airport.
Mr Chukiat said his cooperative represented 181 drivers who were now suffering from loss of income since Grab became allowed to serve passengers at the airport. The co-op operates on the basis of one driver, one car.
The cooperative must pay high concession fees each year to the airport for the rights to have taxi drivers at the airport ready to serve passengers arriving on the island. Now drivers are not making enough trips to support their families, he said.
During the COVID pandemic, when tourism to Phuket was shut down, and then slowly recovering, Phuket Airport, operated by the Phuket branch of Airports of Thailand (AoT Phuket), reduced the fees to only 15% of the agreed to in the concession contract.
With the number of tourists arriving on Phuket increasing, the concession fees collected by AoT are now close to the original fees in the contract, he said.
“In the past, cooperatives had to bear the losses, but now there is more market share. Travelers request a car through an app rather than a car at the airport, even if they have to drag their bags and walk outside [the airport] to the car. And now the problems have increased a lot, as Phuket Airport has allowed the taxi-app cars to pick up passengers at the airport,” he added.
“Some days we don’t receive even a single passenger. Drivers used to make at least three trips a day. These people are working as public transport drivers. When there are no people using the service, there is a lack of income,” Mr Chukiat said.
“Therefore, I want the Minister of Transport to come to help villagers who are working as a public service driver as their main occupation ‒ not just help the taxi app drivers.
“Initially, I would like to help coordinate with the Phuket Airport authority (AoT Phuket) over the matter of concession renewal,” Mr Chukiat continued.
At the launch of the Grab service at the airport last Friday, Phuket Airport General Manager Monchai Tanode confirmed that the concessions for taxi drivers to operate at the airport had expired in June. The co-operatives that continue to serve the airport are currently doing so under temporary four-month extensions that expire next month.
“We would ask for concessions to be extended automatically without bidding, and ask to reduce the concession fee to the same rate as the taxi app drivers that pick up passengers at the airport,” Mr Chukiat said.
“Right now, the local residents [who rely on income from exclusive rights to serve passengers at the airport] are suffering hard. As for Phuket Airport allowing taxi app cars to pick up passengers, the cooperative does not interfere and is willing to allow everyone to have a career and earn an income, but I would like to help the local residents as well,” Mr Chukiat said.
At the launch of the Grab service at Phuket airport last Friday, Airports of Thailand (AoT) President Dr Kerati Kijmanawat confirmed that Grab was just the first taxi app service to be approved to pick up passengers at Phuket airport.
More taxi app services have applied for permission to serve passengers at the airport. Those applications are still under review, he said.