After a long flight back to Halifax there is nothing like arriving at the airport and paying $21 for a shuttle bus to the city. I am so glad there is no public transportation option (that would make too much sense).
To add to this, I asked an airport worker for the cheapest way to Halifax and he said “walking”.
Thank you for the warm welcome. It made my life. —Airport Blues
This article appears in Jul 1-7, 2010.
Could have been worse seeing how a taxi is more than the $21 you paid.
yea that’s brutal TO has transit buses and Vancouver has skytrain
Ok well if you cabbed it, it would have costed you close to 35-40 dollars.
35-40? that’s it?
all the cars from the airport to the city quote a 45-55 dollar flat rate.
21 is a steal if you can arrive in time to snag one.
WOAH! Karma is so totally going to bite that rude and ignorant airport worker in the behind.
NGF just rounding out the last bitches not involving karma to come full circle….
nicely done.
It amazes me how that airport wins awards. It’s constantly under some kind of construction and the staff are only so so pleasant.
well shit, you did ask for the cheapest way, you got the answer. i would have said the same thing, or told you to stick out a thumb.
I’m with LS here.
You asked for the cheapest way & the airport worker told you !
As for the airport cab/limo service it is a minimum $55.00 to the city & those crooks will try & charge you that amount if your going to Elmsdale which is less than 1/3rd the distance to Halifax (although in the other direction)
I now use our local cab service to & from the airport…& you want to see pissed off, you check out the cabbies when an outside cab comes in & picks someone up .
FYI from the airport to Elmsdale (almost Lantz actually) the local cab company charges a $20.00 flat ~;)
“walking” ahahahahaha. love. it.
Shuttle from royal york hotel to pearson costs over 20 bucks…*shrug*
At least in Toronto and Vancouver there’s public transit you can take to and from the main airports there. Edmonton doesn’t have any public transit to its far away International Airport, either.
$3 TTC ride from Pearson VS $21 shuttle ride down the 102. I know which one I prefer. Really, though, there should be regular airport bus service provided by Acadian or White’s, though the cabbies and shuttles would likely revolt against such invasion of their mutually exclusive territory.
yea I just travelled from pearson to union station in about 1 hr for 3 bucks; was it nice no but it was 3 bucks!
Oceanlady – your suggestion of White’s or Acadian providing regular city – airport runs will never happen. Here’s why:
The airport shuttle bus, even before the days of Airport Transfer/Aerocoach/Nova Charter, Airbus/Zinck’s Bus Co. and now the current Airporter Inc are all operated under contract with the HIA authority. HIA gets a fixed amount per year plus an additional percentage if the estimated ticket sales are exceeded. In return, the shuttle operator is given exclusive rights for the route by the HIA and the NSURB. The issue that crops up is that the HIA doesn’t guarantee any revenue to the winning operator. Zinck’s dropped the contract at the first opportunity once the routes started draining money from their other divisions. Nova Charter did the same, walked away after many, many years of holding the contract.
A bus operator like Whites for example would have to apply for an alteration to their charter license to allow for collection of individual fares versus a group chartering their buses with one invoice being issued. Something the URB wouldn’t likely give if they didn’t have HIA’s blessing.
Any charter bus can drop off passengers at the airport without issue, but picking up is a different story. When arriving to pick up a group you have to provide the ground transportation office with proof of NSURB operating authority, flight/group details and the HIA then provides you with a loading permit. That results in an costly invoice being issued to the bus company. Another bit of revenue for HIA.
HIA has become hooked on making a few bucks from the scheduled shuttle and charter bus fees they charge. They also make a few bucks everytime an outbound Acadian Lines bus stops to pick up passengers headed onto their NB, CB or Truro-bound routes.
This is exactly why HIA is in no hurry to see Metro Transit running anywhere near their property. They’ll lose that money unless transit agrees to something like Montreal’s Trudeau Airport (ADM) did when the STM won the contract over private bidders – the normal city bus fare is $2.75 but the dedicated city bus route to the airport charges around $7.50 each way. ADM still makes a few dollars from each ticket, the fare is now affordable compared to the previous $18 fare charged by Autocars La Quebecoise but the $7.50 also gives you access to the STM’s bus and metro system for a 24 hour period.
Sorry for the long post but I hope it explains in more detail.