Healthwise
- New infographic names and shames cities with most expensive airport cabs
- New Zealand and Australia fare badly in poll with seven cities in top ten
- London is the most expensive city in Europe - and costlier than any US city
It can be one of the biggest – and costliest – banes of travellers’ lives.
You land at an airport and you need to make a quick journey into the city centre – so grab a taxi to take you there in the quickest possible time.
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Hang on to your wallet: Airport taxis in New Zealand and Australia are likely to prove expensive
Only then do you discover that the cost of this transfer is something akin to the national budget of one of the planet’s smaller nations.
And according to new research, travellers seeking to keep as much of their money in their wallets as possible should avoid New Zealand – and Australasia in general.
A survey, conducted by a New Zealand company – presented below as a neat infographic – has found that Christchurch has the most expensive airport taxi rides on the planet.
According to the research, conducted by Digital Hothouse, taxi passengers in the biggest city on New Zealand’s South Island face an eye-watering average rate per kilometre of NZ$4.50 – a figure which equates to £2.30 for 1000 metres.
Taxi infographic
And with 10km separating the city’s airport from the centre, that equates to an overall cost of NZ$45 (£23) for a ride into town.
Christchurch’s near neighbour Queenstown was barely any cheaper, coming second in the poll at an average rate of NZ$4.38 (£2.25) per kilometre, with the cost of an airport transfer spiralling to a total of NZ$35 (£18) for an 8km transfer from the airport.
Two other New Zealand cities – the capital Wellington and the biggest metropolis Auckland – also made the top ten.
And costs seem to be barely any less budget-busting on the other side of the Tasman Sea – where three Australian cities also make the top five for expensive airport cab journeys.
Sydney is listed as the chief Australian offender, with an average rate per kilometre of NZ$4.23 (£2.17) (for the purposes of uniformity, the survey’s results were presented in New Zealand Dollars) – NZ$51 (£26) for the 12-kilometre journey to the centre.
Where can I take you, gov? London is the most expensive city in Europe for an airport taxi transfer
West-coast metropolis Perth, and the capital of Victoria, Melbourne, are also named and shamed for the price of their airport taxis.
British readers may be surprised to know that London only ‘achieved’ eighth place in the table, below the likes of Wellington and Perth – but also unsurprised to hear that it was listed as the most expensive city in Europe, and pricier than any city in the United States.
The cost of an airport taxi in the British capital was calculated at NZ$3.67 per kilometre (£1.88), with the average ride into the centre listed as 29 kilometres and NZ$105 (£54).
The UK also featured towards the top of the tree when the cost of airport taxi rides was compared on a country-by-country basis.
The average cost of a British airport taxi ride was listed as NZ$3.48 per kilometre (£1.78) – a figure that was high enough to leave the UK at third place in the ‘most expensive’ table, behind New Zealand and Australia but ahead of the likes of Russia, Spain and Italy
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2685864/Worlds-expensive-city-airport-taxis-revealed-isnt-London-New-York.html
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