Budapest, 14 February 2007 – Budapest Airport has approved new tariffs for Zóna airport taxi services for 2007, which will come into effect on 15 February. The new tariffs will see increases in airport taxi fares by between Ft 100 and Ft 700, depending on the zone.
The T1-T2 transfer fare remains unchanged, and the fare to Zone 1 is increased by Ft 100. The fares to Zone 2 and 3 are raised by Ft 600, and passengers headed for the outer suburbs of Buda will pay Ft 700 more per journey.
The new fare structure has been approved in line with the contract signed with Zóna Service in 2006, under which annual increases in fares can be made early in the new year. These increases take into account both the current level of inflation and the investment that will be made by Zóna to maintain the excellent level of customer service that the new taxi service provides to airport passengers.
Zóna Service is investing in developments above the commitments specified in the 2006 service level agreement, in order to provide the highest standards of service to passengers. In response to demand, and in order to ensure that passengers do not need to wait for more than a few minutes for taxis, Zóna has already extended its taxi fleet from the 150 stipulated in the agreement to 220, and is planning to increase its fleet still further to 300. Zóna believes that the additional cars are needed in order to keep passenger waiting times at the airport to a minimum, especially when the major road redevelopments scheduled in Budapest for 2007 cause longer journey times and delay taxis from returning to the airport from the city.
Other customer service investments undertaken or underway since the start of the contract August 2006 include:
• 100 new vehicles
• vehicle upgrades (installing GPRS, multimedia, credit card payment system) worth almost a million forints per vehicle
• additional staff hired to operate the extended fleet.
The new fares will only apply to Zóna fares for pick-ups from the airport. Even after these fare increases, Zóna will still offer by far the lowest fares from the airport to the city.
BA’s commercial manager, Zsolt Lévay said: “We are very satisfied with the services offered by Zóna taxi, which have transformed airport taxi services in Hungary. Their performance is excellent. They carry passengers with the most modern taxi fleet in Hungary with comfortable and large vehicles. Dispatchers speak foreign languages, and drivers wear smart uniforms. Free information leaflets in the cars are also appreciated by foreign visitors. With the computer-based voucher system, we can guarantee the security of our passengers, which is illustrated by the fact that there is only one complaint every 11,000 trips. We have approved these modified fares to ensure that our passengers continue to a great welcome to Hungary, with a fantastic taxi service, of the highest standard, and with competitive fares.”
István Veres, spokesperson of Zóna said: “Due to increased demand, we had to extend our service significantly. In order to maintain the highest possible service level, further upgrading efforts are needed, especially because there will be major road reconstruction projects in the capital in the summer once more, which may double turnaround times for our vehicles.”
Further information:
Domokos Szollár
Budapest Airport
Phone: 296-5769
Notes for editors:
According to preliminary briefings the major road construction will take part in Budapest this summer: the riverside drive in Pest and the Szabadság bridge will be closed due to refurbishment. As a result of this, turnaround times between the airport and the city doubles and the routes taken by taxis will be longer.
A trip time from inner-Buda to the airport could increase by 20 minutes and from the outskirts by 40 minutes.
