Travellers at Sydney Airport can now get an UberX home after the ridesharing app lifted its own self-enforced ban on pick-ups in the area.
But the move, which involves drivers collecting passengers in the airport's public pick-up zones, has outraged taxi drivers who rely on lucrative airport fares and have to pay an access fee.
Previously, Uber had allowed its premium service UberBlack to arrange pick-ups from the airport but customers were blocked from requesting the standard UberX ridesharing service.
"In response to the huge demand for UberX at Sydney Airport, we have opened functionality in the app for driver-partners to pick up riders from the airport," Uber said in a statement on Thursday.
Uber users can now request an UberX ride at the domestic and international terminals from a driver who waits in the local streets around the terminals.
Drivers avoid paying the airport access fee paid by taxis and other hire cars by collecting passengers from the airport's public pick-up zone.
Cars there can wait up to 10-15 minutes, with Uber encouraging drivers to circle around the block if they outstay the limit.
The move has sparked outrage from the NSW Taxi Council.
"The instructions given to Uber drivers will clog car parks, increase traffic congestion and impact on the amenity of local residents and businesses," NSW Taxi Council chief executive Roy Wakelin-King said.
"It is beyond us as to how Uber can unilaterally announce that it has established waiting areas on land which it appears they have no consent to use."
Mr Wakelin-King said the Taxi Council had no issue with point-to-point transport providers but it wanted "sustainable and responsible arrangements" at the airport that Uber could not "thumb their nose at".
Sydney Airport signalled in April that it was looking into new arrangements for ridesharing services, including a designated pick-up area that would compete with taxi ranks.
Uber confirmed it was working on a long-term presence at the airport.
"This is a solution just for the moment. But the hope is to obviously get a much more long-term solution soon that is more helpful to both riders and drivers," an Uber spokesperson told AAP.
"(That's) something we're working with the airport on, they understand that all the tens of thousands of people coming through the airport are used to using Uber in cities around the world."
