JFK rush hour fee hike eyed

AIR TRAVELERS could pay a sky-high fee for a taxi trip to JFK.

A $4.50 rush hour surcharge weekdays between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. was weighed at a Taxi and Limousine Commission hearing Thursday. The fee would go on top of the $52 flat fare for Manhattan trips to and from the airport.

“I wouldn’t be taking the taxi, for sure,” Anand Menon, 38, of Edgewater, N.J., said. “I would be taking Uber.”

Taxi officials said the extra cash is an incentive to get more drivers to make the airport run. Right now, hacks could make better money cruising for fares, collecting the current $1 rush hour surcharge.

In the three hours it takes to make an evening rush hour trip to Kennedy Airport and back, a driver could make nine metered trips, according to TLC officials.

“There are plenty of people who would be glad to take a taxi and pay the extra money instead of waiting in long lines,” said Terri Harris, 50, of Far Rockaway, Queens.

But taxi riders said hacks should just make the trip without the incentive. The TLC has been trying to crack down on drivers denying service.

“They’re supposed to take people,” said Melanie O’Byrne, 39, an Australian living in Princeton, N.J. “That’s their job.”

With all the competition yellow taxis face, riders said they may stick with public transportation or check out the taxi app services that have proliferated in New York.

“Consumers will do what’s smart for their wallets,” said Saul Gitlin, an advertising executive from White Plains. “It will just put more consideration on alternative services to the yellow cabs.”

A vote on the fee could happen as early as next month.

TLC spokesman Allan Fromberg said taxis refusing to take passengers to the airport was not a significant problem.

“Cab drivers are typically quite eager to take airport rides, but it’s not fairly compensated under the current structure,” Fromberg said. “We’re hoping to remedy that.”