Getting an airport Uber has become an absolute obstacle course

From the bowels of the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport parking garage, an exasperated Jake Cornell cut to the chase. Finding your Uber after a flight these days is "getting a little ridiculous," the touring comedian told the camera in a recent social media video.

After landing in Austin, Cornell had to walk through a maze of parking garages to reach the correct "zone," or, as he saw it: "You get to baggage claim, you walk out, and they’re like, ‘OK, follow the yellow brick road,’" Cornell said.

He recalled what it’s like at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), where travelers must take a bus — "and it’s a long bus," he said — to a designated lot for ride-hailing pickups.

"At this point, it’s a layover. It’s a connection. I have a connecting flight to my car," Cornell said.

The mounting question — for airports, ride-hailing companies and the frustrated travelers caught in the middle — is whether it all has to be this way.

Since Uber launched in 2011, airports across America have had to adapt to meet traveler demand for ride-hailing services, known officially to airports as transportation network companies, or TNCs. At smaller airports, where traffic isn’t an issue, changes can be minimal, like adding signage. But at major airports, ride-hailing users are often subject to longer, more complicated journeys.

Instead of walking out to the curb and getting into an Uber — the way you’d catch a traditional taxi — the process can involve taking shuttles or tracking confusing signage deep into unknown airport territory, like a hunter stalking elusive prey.

Some airports say such workarounds are necessary, if inconvenient, evils. Others say they’re a temporary fix and promise better systems ahead.

Easy access but ‘absolute gridlock’

In a ride-hailer’s perfect world, travelers could get off their flights, leave the airport and walk right to an Uber waiting at the curb.

Most airports have tried that approach. San Francisco International Airport (SFO), in the backyard of the tech companies that created ride-booking apps, was the first in the country to create a permit structure for companies like Uber and Lyft to operate at the airport, said Doug Yakel, SFO’s public information officer for external affairs. Curbside pickups and drop-offs initially were permitted.

But as ride app services quickly became the most popular way to get to and from SFO, officials couldn’t ignore a worsening byproduct of their arrival: The new mass of cars competing for curb space created "just absolute gridlock on our roadways," Yakel said. "Trying to get a pickup was a nightmare."

Other major American airports also struggled to balance ride-hailing demand and the traffic it produced.

David Ishihara, director of aviation services at Massachusetts Port Authority, which oversees Boston’s Logan International Airport, said the airport wasn’t designed to accommodate the extra mode of transportation, and traffic became an issue that affected not only ride app services but hotel shuttles and buses.

Over time, airport officials realized a free-for-all "was not sustainable," Ishihara said. "There was just too much demand on that limited terminal curb-front capacity."

David Reich, Los Angeles World Airports’ deputy executive director for mobility strategy, said that before the pandemic, the airport was fielding 250,000 passengers a day, most of whom were arriving by car. The curb was so congested that it could take 20 minutes for an Uber to reach its customer.

But, as LAX and other airports have found, attempted solutions often bring new problems.

Longer walks at older airports

Carving out zones for Uber and Lyft at aging airports with "locked-in infrastructure" is a challenge, said Ty Osbaugh, a Principal architect at Gensler, an international firm whose clients include JFK International and Pittsburgh International airports.

Repurposing existing parking lots and garages for TNC use has become a popular quick fix. Osbaugh pointed to Chicago O’Hare, which opened in 1944. Since 2023, O’Hare limits ride hailing to the upper-level departure deck of Terminal 2. The system requires most travelers to take a people-mover train to access it.

LAX is building its own people-mover to alleviate traffic, as part of a $30 billion capital improvement program, but until it opens, ride-share users must rely on LAX-it, a stopgap system that debuted in 2019 to passenger frustration and confusion. As Cornell lamented in his video, it requires catching a bus to a lot near Terminal 1. You can also get there by foot.

"They’re making everybody walk away from the central terminal to get to a location, which ... by then, you’ve kind of lost all the luster of getting an Uber," Osbaugh said.

LAX-it did help the airport address congestion problems in the short term, Reich noted — eliminating 15% of vehicles clogging airport roads. But he said officials understand travelers’ frustration as the bigger solutions await completion.

The "overall goal," Reich said, is to "improve the traffic situation for everybody — not just ride-share drivers."

Turning to Uber, Lyft and the future

While airports are in charge of designing and refining passenger pickups, some have turned to the ride-hailing companies for help, too.

Overwhelmed by traffic, SFO collaborated with Uber and Lyft in 2019 to incentivize customers with discounted rates to request pickups in a quieter parking structure. The move diverted some traffic but not enough. By the spring, SFO relocated all ride app pickups to the fifth floor of a parking garage in the "doughnut hole" of the circular airport.

Boston came up with something similar, repurposing the ground floor of a central parking garage and another near Terminal B for TNC use. It may sound less convenient than curbside pickup, but Ishihara said airport officials calculated that walking to the parking garages wouldn’t take any longer than waiting for a ride in the old, traffic-jammed days.

Still, some travelers lament the changes. The problem with using LAX-it, hopping on a people-mover or trekking to a far-off pickup location isn’t just the hassle. It’s the vibe.

"You’re just fresh off a plane and you desperately want to just get to your hotel or get home; you’re already in an emotionally thin state," Cornell told The Post. To then have to schlep further "doesn’t seem like a solution to me, but I guess it’s necessary."

Andy Jeninga, Uber’s global head of airport operations, wrote in an email that the company "share[s] travelers’ frustrations." He lamented how "some airports have moved our pickup locations away from the curb, even as personal vehicles still have free curbside access."

Ride-hailing headaches impact drivers, too, said Khalid Khattak, who has driven for Uber and Lyft in New York since 2018. Travelers can get frustrated if a pickup is taking too long thanks to airport traffic and cancel rides. More often, they’ll get into the car angry, passing the blame to the driver.

"It does affect your day," he said.

In time, the problem could sort itself out. New airport terminals are designed with functioning Uber pickups in mind. The new Terminal C at LaGuardia Airport, where ride hails have a dedicated "inner lane" on the arrivals level, "is a really good model," Osbaugh said.

Cornell called it "a standout," and Khattak called it one of the best airports for both drivers and passengers.

By the time JFK’s new Terminal One is finished, in 2030, airports may already be playing catch-up with the next transportation innovation, from self-driving cars to electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft.

"The rise of Uber and Lyft told us that we are always going to need to be keeping an eye on the future," Yakel said, "and what is the next type of paradigm shift."