Mário Cruz / Lusa
Transporting tourists: profitable (and illegal) business, with several strategies. There are two more complicated areas in the capital.
“We have had many complaints of tourists, who do not know our reality, and with the internet their volume increases. And basically everything is born there at the airport. We have two situations: airport and the Cais do Sodré. These are very complicated areas.”
“They privilege foreignersof course. Mainly Americans, English and Northern Europeans. There is a lot corporatism between them and make a kind of fundraising. They have alert groups, they work on WhatsApp.”
The report was made to , by the head of a team in an inspection operation by the Traffic Division of the Public Security Police (PSP) in Lisbon.
With an example: “Once a few Korean citizens arrived and two people who knew each other immediately pulled them towards them. We were watching and they went to Martim Moniz, to a hotel and paid 30 euros each” – and the usual price, on this trip, it would be 10 euros.
The business next to Humberto Delgado Airport is profitable, but illegal: os Taxi drivers transport tourists at (much) higher prices than usual.
PSP agents park in the airport arrivals area; they see what taxi drivers do; watch as drivers leave the taxi area – with taximeter turned off or coveredfor example.
O taxi driver doesn’t charge what the machine says. At the end of the trip, reveals to the passenger the value that he himself defines.
There are taxi drivers who, only by transporting foreigners arriving at the airport, are able to earn 500 euros in one day.
Since 2026 began, around 40 taxi drivers have been arrested for the crime of profiteering; some were also arrested for embezzlement.
