KOCHI: Till a couple of years ago, Ajith Aravindan’s life revolved around late-night shifts and daily trips to different destinations across the state. As a taxi busy taxi driver at the Kochi airport, he was making a decent living.
That was before the Covid pandemic put the brakes on national and international air travel. Now the 37-year-old father of two chops grass for a daily wage and takes up odd jobs to eke out a living. “I still go to the airport. On some lucky days I get some trips. But they are few and far between. They are not enough to look after a family of six. This is why started doing odd jobs,” he said.
Like Ajith, 600 members of the Cochin International Airport Taxi Operators’ Cooperative Society are struggling to survive due to the financial crisis brought by the pandemic. Though some international flights were functional after the first phase, the second wave of Covid put paid to any hope of immediate revival. At present, only chartered flights are coming to the airport. Close to 200 taxis operate at the airport, but only a few lucky ones get regular trips.
“We depend solely on airport passengers,” said Eldo Yohannan, a board member of the society. “With almost no trips on days on end, most of the drivers have opted to do other jobs to survive,” he said.
He said he used to earn nearly `50,000 a month before the pandemic. That dropped nearly to `10,000 to `15,000. Drivers wait hours, sometimes days, to get a trip from the airport now,” said Eldo, one of the longest-serving members of the society.
“Even before the pandemic, our earnings were impacted by online taxi aggregators who are ready to ferry passengers for a discount,”said Eldo. “Even now, we face stiff competition from them. Though we complained to CIAL officials, they have not taken any action so far,” he added.The society was formed 21 years ago. Initially, CIAL gave the permits to run taxi service to people, or their immediate family members, who ceded land for the project.
The society administers and manages the taxi service. “At the time of forming the society, nearly 250 drivers were granted the permit,” Eldo said.Taxi drivers now pin their hopes on the state government’s move to open the tourism sector in aphasedmanner.