The Integrated Transport Centre and Abu Dhabi Airports have deployed 800 additional taxis—500 premium cabs dedicated to arrivals at Zayed International Airport and 300 added to city ranks—to cut peak-hour wait times as passenger traffic rebounds to pre-pandemic highs. The fleet expansion follows complaints on social media of 45-minute queues during last month’s holiday rush. Authorities say the premium vehicles will offer fixed-fare options to key districts, echoing ‘airport limousine’ models seen in Singapore and Seoul. For travel-programme managers, the change reduces missed-meeting risk for executives landing after midnight when Abu Dhabi’s metro and inter-city buses are offline. Companies with volume agreements can negotiate corporate rates with the two franchised operators running the new cabs. The move also dovetails with the capital’s plan to shift 25 percent of airport-city trips to low-emission vehicles by 2030; half of the new taxis are hybrids, with a pilot batch of EVs due next quarter. Passengers connecting to Dubai via the E11 highway should still account for potential fog-related speed restrictions (see story above), but additional taxi supply is expected to blunt price surges triggered by app-based ride-hailing demand.
Source: UAE Place
