The "No Tunnels" Airport Run from Causeway Bay
It is 06:35 on a weekday. You pick up two passengers and four large suitcases from a hotel on Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay. They are booked on a 09:30 departure from Hong Kong International Airport and want to be at Terminal 1 by 08:00. As you load the last bag the passenger says: "Please don't take the harbour tunnel - the tolls are a rip-off. Find another way." You know that every road route from Hong Kong Island to Lantau crosses the harbour, that the Western Harbour Crossing toll for a taxi is $85 while the Cross-Harbour Tunnel is $30, and that traffic reports already show a queue on the Hung Hom approach. The hotel driveway is blocked by a delivery lorry, so you load at the kerb on a busy three-lane road.
1. The passenger insists on avoiding all tunnels. What do you tell them, and which way do you actually drive?
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Explain the geography first. Lantau is west of Kowloon, on the far side of the harbour from Hong Kong Island. There is no road to the airport that does not cross the harbour, and there is no practical ferry alternative for a taxi with four suitcases and a check-in deadline. So "avoid the tunnel" cannot be complied with literally - the passenger's real concern is cost, not tunnels.
Then offer the real choice. Two crossings make sense:
- Western Harbour Crossing ($85) - lands in West Kowloon, straight onto the West Kowloon Highway and Route 8 to the Lantau Link and North Lantau Highway. Shortest and most predictable, and it bypasses the Hung Hom queue.
- Cross-Harbour Tunnel ($30) - cheaper by $55, but the Hung Hom approach is already queueing, and you would still have to work back west through Kowloon to reach the Lantau Link.
Do not decide silently. The passenger pays the actual toll, so tell them the difference and the time cost, recommend the Western Harbour Crossing, and let them choose. Taking the $85 crossing without telling them invites a dispute at the destination.
2. At 07:55 you are still on the North Lantau Highway, about 13 km from Terminal 1. What do you do about the promised 08:00 arrival?
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Give an honest estimate: roughly 12–15 minutes to the Terminal 1 departures ramp, so about 08:10 - not 08:00.
What you must not do: speed, run amber/red signals, or use the hard shoulder to recover the ten minutes. The deadline is the passenger's problem, not a licence to break the law, and a collision would cost them the flight entirely.
What you should do:
- Tell them the realistic arrival time now, not on the ramp, so they can act on it.
- Advise them to have passports and booking references in hand and to go straight to the bag-drop desk rather than a check-in queue.
- Note that 08:10 for a 09:30 departure is tight but usually workable; if their airline closes bag drop 60 minutes before, they have little margin, and if they miss it they will need to be rebooked - which is not something you can fix by driving faster.
3. En route the passengers ask you to stop at a hotel in West Kowloon to collect a colleague and take them to the airport too. May you do it, and how does it affect the fare?
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You may, provided the original hirers consent - the taxi was hired by them, so a second fare cannot simply be added over their heads, and in any event the total number of passengers must stay within the vehicle's licensed seating capacity.
Effect on the fare: none, in the sense that the meter keeps running continuously. The hire is one journey with a detour; you do not reset the meter, you do not charge a second flag fall, and you do not switch on new waiting time as if it were a fresh hire. The extra distance and the time spent waiting at the hotel simply accumulate on the same meter.
Practical points: agree clearly who is paying, since the meter will produce a single total for two sets of passengers; and check the colleague's luggage fits within the boot before agreeing, because baggage that cannot be carried safely is a reason to decline.