AUSTIN — A week after Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (ABIA) opened its new rideshare app pick-up location, some travelers still have mixed feelings about it.
Travelers used to be able to request rides just outside of baggage claim on the lower level of the airport. As of Nov. 19, they have to make their way to the new location near the rental car area.
"If you've come to the airport to pick up a loved one, a family member, there's definitely a lot of traffic on the lower level for picking up all your arrivals," ABIA spokesperson Bryce Dubee said. "This pulls out about 3,700 cars per day into this new location that's just outside over by our rental car facility."
But some travelers aren't adapting to the change so easily.
"I don't like it," Mari Kino Numanoi Anthony said. "It seems like a great system for the drivers who know how to get here, but for the drivers that don't know how to get here. They're using GPS, it looks like, and they can't seem to find their way here."
It took Anthony more than half an hour to catch a ride. She said the rideshare app drivers were having a difficult time finding her location.
"I'm right next to the taxis," Anthony told the driver over the phone. "Is that you, right here? Are you talking to me right now? He's right behind me."
The new location, however, is a welcomed addition for people like Dana Lindsay. She flies out of the busiest airport in the country.
"Being from Atlanta, there's no things like that. You're kind-of just in a long line trying to figure out which car matches yours," Lindsay said. ""I think this is open, spacious, clean. Pretty easy to find directions."
That was the airport's goal all along, Dubee said -- but his team is listening to the feedback.
"We're taking it. We read every single comment, question, concern that we get about this, and we are taking it to heart and passing it along," he said. "We are working to make sure that we can make it as good of an experience as possible for travelers."
The new pick-up location is part of phase one of the airport's 2040 master plan.