Taxi Fare or Air Fare?

UPDATE: Minister has reversed this decision. (details)

Beirut Airport Humiliation of Families, Elderly and People With Disabilities Continues

Honestly, after the incredibly low move of adding steel barriers ahead of the first security checkpoint, and just meters away from baggage drop off, in a move to force those who can’t hold their own luggage to pay a porter, you’d think the cabal running our country and its only international airport would take a break from making passengers’ lives more miserable. You’d be mistaken though.

Airport Taxi (to and from) Costs Same As Ticket to Larnaca, Cyprus

We often joke that it would take less time to fly to and back form Cyprus, than it would to commute from home to where you work in Lebanon. Well, I think that gave the official airport taxis the idea to price it as much as a ticket to Larnaca.

Let’s assume you live in Jounieh, which is around 20km from Beirut. That would theoretically put the price of your taxi at around 45–50$ from the airport (they often charge you more than the stated price online). My friendly neighborhood cab charges me $20 flat, and the most I’ve paid for an Uber or Careem to the airport is around 19$ going to departures, and around $27 leaving from arrivals (cause they need to park in the parking, and add that fee).

So, even your most expensive non-airport option, is half what these inadequate, mob-style official cabs rip you off with.

I’m Walking, But What About Those Who Can’t?

I’m going home soon, and I’m walking my fat ass the 9–10 minutes you need to get past the army checkpoint at the airport’s entrance. I can do that cause I’m lucky enough to still be young, have no disabilities and have no children to take with me.

But what about those who can’t walk that distance? What if you have two massive pieces of luggage? What if your toddler was too tired from your long flight, and you don’t want them to walk a kilometer to the nearest non-rip-off taxi mafia?

It’s not that I’m being cheap, but I don’t want to succumb to the evil scheming of the people running this smoke-filled, garbage-smelling airport. They rip us off with Cafematik, bad Internet for a few minutes and that horrible “honoree” jingle that keeps repeating itself. Let us get to it and leave from it in peace!

If you can walk, or can call a loved one to come pick you up, do it. Don’t take a cab. I hope ride-sharing companies can hire white-plate cars that masquerade as family and friends to pick you up in cars that won’t cost more than half as much as a one-way ticket to Cyprus.

I’ll end this article with the same sentence I used for the steel barriers scheme:

Come on, have an ounce of decency and let us come and go as we please with just a hint of dignity.

UPDATE: several readers of the blog called the official cab companies, and they said a trip from the Airport to ashrafieh is for 100,000LBP (around 67$) making the price to anywhere the same as a ROUND TRIP ticket to Larnaca, not a one-way…