Taxi drivers protest airport changes

About 100 taxi drivers gathered outside Parliament this morning to protest changes to taxi stands at Wellington Airport.

Changes planned for the airport would advantage the Wellington Combined company while reducing the space for other taxis and pushing them to the back lane.

Divend Prasad, a Wellington taxi driver, said he was beeping his horn as part of the protest and was given a $150 ticket by police.

He said he was told he would end up in jail if he did it again.

Mr Prasad was a registered high school maths and science teacher in his native Fiji.

Unable to get work as a teacher in New Zealand, he resorted to driving a taxi, he said.

Fellow taxi driver Vonrick Kerr said the changes at the airport were the "straw that broke the camel's back".

The prime taxi rank spots were going to those with deep pockets, he said.

"The shallow pocket area is the back where we're not going to get any work at all and we feel that's an injustice."

The airport was partly council-owned so taxi drivers, as ratepayers, should be able to earn a living there, Mr Kerr said.

- NZPA