6 months into its Kelowna operations, Uber still not allowed to pick up passengers at airport

Uber has been operating in Kelowna since early June, but the city's airport remains a notable exception to its service area. 

Travellers arriving at YLW this holiday season will not be able to use the ride-hailing giant to book a trip to their final destination.

As reported by Castanet News, that's because Uber has, so far, declined to sign a licence agreement with the airport similar to those that taxi operators and other ride-hailing services have. 

"Uber, to this date, has not come to the table," said airport CEO Sam Samaddar, in an interview with Castanet.

"We've spent a lot of time creating a level playing field for our shared-ride services as well as our taxis."

Samaddar said until Uber signs a similar agreement, he's "not prepared" to allow it to operate at the airport.

"We’re not just going to carte blanche allow one operator to operate under a separate set of rules that everybody else has agreed to operate under," he said.

For its part, Uber told Castanet it has no further comment on the situation beyond what it told Vancouver lawyer Kyla Lee on social media, a brief statement that read, in part: 

"We would love to support pickups at the Kelowna airport and we continue to engage with local stakeholders on how to make that happen."

Uber has been conducting pickups and drop-offs at Vancouver International Airport since the company began operating in Metro Vancouver in January 2020. 

When Uber began operating in Greater Victoria earlier this year – at the same time service in Kelowna began – the company held a "grand opening" event at Victoria International Airport.

YYJ was one of the organizations in B.C.'s capital region that voiced public support for allowing Uber to operate there.