By: Staff Writer
Colombo (LNW): The Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) will earn Rs. 700 per vehicle for each PickMe taxi which operates from the airport, the app-based ride hailing company said.
Under a new agreement between the Airport & Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) (Private) Ltd., and PickMe, the app-based ride hailing company will operate a taxi stand within the Bandaranaike International Airport.
The new arrangement will bring an additional revenue of Rs. 700/- per vehicle to the BIA while making it easier to monitor tourist arrivals.
Currently the PickMe stand is a 100 square foot area located at the Tourist Exit area of the BIA. They operate 24/7 and will at any given time have a driver at the counter as well as vehicles parked in their allotted slot at the BIA car park.
The company is in negotiations with the Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) (Private) Ltd., to have a dedicated booth within the BIA for further convenience of arriving tourists.
“We will be generating a daily report to the airport and keeping authorities updated on our vehicle movements.
Apart from the BIA, this will also help the tourism industry to gauge arrivals and departures of free individual travellers (FITs) which will help the industry to understand their stays and travel patterns within the island.
From the user point of view i.e. foreign tourists, they will have access to a transparent system that will allow them to travel from the BIA to any part of the country at a very reasonable cost.
PickMe is already popular amongst video bloggers who travel all over the country, giving useful data to travellers across the world.
They have already highlighted that PickMe rates are less than half of what other taxi services stationed at the BIA offers,” says Zulfer Jiffry, CEO of PickMe, adding that the company looks forward to working with the airport to increase and improve Customer Experiences at the airport.
All Airport trips will have PickMe’s Insurance cover for hospitalisation and Life. The company also has the additional advantage of ride tracking on their app, which enables loved ones to easily see their movements even when overseas.
This not only increases the safety factor, but also ensures peace of mind for tourists and their families.
While PickMe already offers welcome and identification board services for airport arrivals, on the PickMe corporate member platform, the CEO says plans are underway to extend this service to all users in the near future.
