French cabbies angry with Uber, block Paris airports

Paris: Hundreds of French cab drivers angry with competition from ride-booking app Uber on Thursday blocked access to Paris airports and train stations as they protested losing customers to the popular service.

 

Access to three terminals at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport in the north of the city was blocked and cabs were converging on the Orly airport in the south and at train stations inside the city.

 

Taxi drivers in France are furious over an Uber service called UberPOP, which puts customers in touch with private drivers at prices lower than those of traditional taxis. Licensed cabbies say the service is endangering their jobs by flooding the market with low-cost drivers. UberPOP has been banned in France since January, but the law has proved difficult to enforce and the service continues to operate.

 

The cabbies also blocked a western section of the “peripherique” highway that encircles Paris for about 30 minutes, overturning rubbish bins onto the busy thoroughfare.