Paris taxis keep airport monopoly

MPS SCRAP PLANS TO OPEN UP THE TAXI RANKS AT CHARLES DE GAULLE AIRPORT TO RIVAL LOCAL TAXI FIRMS MPs have backed down on plans to open up the taxi ranks at France's busiest airport to

competition. The proposed change at Charles de Gaulle airport has been deleted from the _Grenelle 2_ law going through parliament at the moment. Although the airport is based in the Val

d'Oise, local taxi firms from that department are only allowed to drive people to the airport - not pick them up. This is because of a 30-year-old deal between Aéroports de Paris and

the city hall, giving Paris taxis the monopoly on airport pick-ups. A similar monopoly at Orly airport has already been scrapped. Paris taxi drivers reacted with anger at the proposed

changes earlier this year, staging three blockades and go-slow protests that disrupted traffic around the airport and on the main route into Paris. Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau

said there were already too many taxis queuing at the airport and scrapping the monopoly would not have benefited customers. Independent taxi drivers' union FNTI said it was taking

legal action at a local level, at the _tribunal administratif_ in Pontoise, to challenge the monopoly. Union president Marc Ghis told _Le Parisien_ that the group would take its fight as far

as the European court if necessary. Michael Stumpf - Fotolia.com