KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan – Elderly travelers must drag their luggage 300 meters to reach Uber at Kaohsiung Airport. A TVBS reporter tested the route from the international arrivals hall. It took 4 minutes and 23 seconds and covered about 300 meters. The path crossed two pedestrian crossings, included a downhill section and required rolling luggage around drainage covers.
Is 5 minutes walk that bad? It feels different for an older traveler, a tourist that is not familiar to the environment, a person with limited mobility, a parent managing children and luggage or somebody arriving alone late at night. It also feels different for any passenger who selected an app specifically because it provides a vehicle plate, driver information, estimated fare and a digital record of the trip. Tourists often use services like Uber to avoid language barriers in unfamiliar countries, since they can set their destination directly in the app.
There is no public proof of an illegal cartel between the airport and taxi companies. Calling it one as a legal fact would be careless.
The policy has improved, but the privilege remains
Until recently, the situation was worse.
Beginning in November 2024, ordinary and app-dispatched taxis were prohibited from entering the airport even when responding to a confirmed reservation. Passengers had to meet them outside the airport grounds. Taxi associations from Kaohsiung, Tainan and Pingtung protested, saying international passengers were being forced to walk as far as 800 meters with their luggage.
The Transport Ministry later amended the airport vehicle rules, and Kaohsiung Airport began a one-year pilot on June 25, 2026. Eight approved operators were admitted, including several Uber partner fleets, Taiwan Taxi, Yoxi and LINE GO. That was overdue progress.
But the airport preserved the most valuable privilege. Traditional queue taxis remain directly in front of the terminals. App-booked taxis were assigned the more distant zone near MRT Exit 2. Rental vehicles, meanwhile, have pickup access near the international terminal and bus parking area.
These are licensed taxis, not random cars
The distinction is especially difficult to justify because Taiwan’s so-called diversified taxis are not illegal private vehicles.
Under Taiwan’s transport regulations, diversified taxi services are licensed taxi operations that accept reservations through internet platforms. Their drivers must hold professional driving licenses and taxi-driver registrations. Platforms must provide passengers with the vehicle brand, license plate, manufacturing year, driver credentials, ratings, estimated route and fare information. These vehicles may take reservations but may not cruise for street hails or join ordinary taxi stands.
In other words, the airport knows who the companies are. The platform knows who the driver is. The passenger knows the plate number. The trip is electronically recorded.
Sending these passengers 300 meters away cannot seriously be presented as the only possible way to maintain safety.
The people with the most luggage are sent the farthest
Passengers do not choose app-based transport merely because they enjoy staring at a moving car icon.
They may want to reserve ahead, pay electronically, see the expected fare, select a larger vehicle or keep a record of the driver and journey. These features are particularly valuable when arriving in an unfamiliar country.
They are also valuable for passengers carrying substantial luggage. Uber advises airport passengers to select a ride type suited to their group and luggage volume. Yoxi’s Kaohsiung Airport instructions specifically ask passengers to enter the number and size of their bags and to request a larger sport utility vehicle when carrying a 30- to 32-inch suitcase.
So the current policy produces a magnificently stupid result: the passengers most likely to choose a larger car because they have heavy luggage are the passengers required to drag that luggage the farthest.
A woman traveling alone may prefer a trip in which the driver’s identity, plate, route and payment are recorded. That does not mean traditional taxi drivers are inherently unsafe. It means passengers should be allowed to make their own safety decisions without being physically penalized for them.
The history looks like protectionism
In 2025, airport queue-taxi drivers repeatedly complained to airport officials and aviation police that diversified taxis were taking their business. Police acknowledged that most of the disputed vehicles were legal app-dispatched taxis responding to passenger bookings, rather than illegal unlicensed cars. Travelers were nevertheless required to carry their luggage outside the airport grounds to meet them.
Photo: Dec, 2023 Taxi protest against UBER in Taiwan
No business should be guaranteed customers by making every competing option deliberately less convenient.
The airport’s own long-term development plan already acknowledges that taxi waiting space and connections among the terminals and MRT entrances need improvement. A new terminal and transport center are planned, but passengers should not have to wait years for a problem that can be fixed with paint, signs and several properly managed curb spaces.
Kaohsiung presents itself as an international city. Its airport is often a visitor’s first physical encounter with it. That first encounter should not communicate that local transport politics matter more than passenger choice, or that choosing a traceable, prebooked vehicle earns you a 300-meter penalty.
The airport curb is public infrastructure. It is not an inherited concession, a private club or a jobs-protection program.
