CAA restrains Uber, Careem from operations at Karachi airport

KARACHI: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of Pakistan has put a restriction on the online ride hailing services Uber and Careem from operating at the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, till they fulfil the requirements of the Sindh Transport Authority.

According to officials, the CAA has written letters to both Uber and Careem in this regard, and asked them not to operate their vehicles within the airport until they fulfil the requirements of the Sindh Transport Authority. The letters to the ride hailing services were issued last month, while boards displaying warning both the service providers have recently been put in place at the airport. Earlier, DIG traffic police had written a letter to the CAA for implementation of Motor Vehicle Ordinance 1965 and rules 1969, which were reportedly not followed by these ride hailing services. They were warned that in case of violation, the vehicles would be confiscated. They were asked to inform their customers that they could not provide them pick and drop services at the airport. However, none did so, sources said.

A Careem spokesperson confirmed receiving the letters from the aviation authority, and said they are negotiating the issue with CAA. However, there was no response from Uber’s representative public relations agency. Both the services were issued notices in 2018 for not complying with the rules of the Motor Vehicle Ordinance. The representatives of both the services had told the Sindh government that they had just provided technical apps for the services. None of the vehicles belonged to these services and they were not the transport companies.

Sources said due to these ride hailing services, the taxi services at the airport were suffering huge losses, as they paid a minimum Rs500,000 per month to the CAA for space at the airport. The fare of the airport taxi services is more than double of these ride hailing services. Thus, the customers preferred using the ride hailing apps. The current step, it has been alleged was taken to protect the taxi service providers at the airport.