The Cebu Mactan Airport Tourist Van Fee is Regulated by Tariffs 

The airport car rental and tourist van service in Cebu is a regulated industry complete with tariffs. There is a set fee for within the city trips and for those going to the south or north of the island. What does this mean? It means that the maximum fee an airport van or car can charge per identified route is enforced by law.  

Sure, the operators and drivers can give discounts to bring their prices down so they can entice more passengers to get their vehicle instead of their competitors, but they can’t overcharge, else if proven they did overprice, they can be sanctioned and penalized.  

*Some Cebuanos, out of habit, will say that the tourist van or car rental fee from the airport is fixed, but in reality it is not, except that there is a fix ceiling price. If a driver charges above a ceiling price as seen in the tariff, then one can bring complaints against said driver in the LTFRB, because he is then overcharging or overpricing and that is punishable by law. 

Example: The tariff for route from Mactan Airport to Ayala Center Cebu is P1,300 using a van. If the driver will insist that he can bring you there for P1,500, then he is already overcharging you and you can right away complain. There are lots of airport police roaming in the vicinity, do complain if a driver is overcharging you. Or if after the fact, you can go to LTFRB. Get the plate number and operator name, plastered on the sides of the vehicles.

If you do not want to adhere to the airport tourist van tariffs or feel they are too expensive for you, then I suggest to hail a metered taxi, book a Grab car, book a Maxim motorcycle ride, or take the MyBus to get the city. The airport tourist vans are more expensive than the previous options, but they are bigger and can accommodate more passengers versus regular sedan or motorcycle.  

So, why am I sharing a bit of the Mactan – Cebu Airport Tourist Van Tariff? Reason below: 

A certain vlogger is getting flak in Cebu, particularly within the Tourism sector. What happened? This vlogger, who I will not even dignified by mentioning the name here, maligns Cebu Tourism by calling its airport van drivers as “mamiratahay” (pirates) and “managa-ay”. 

The case is this – they are 6 adults with 5 luggages. They approached a tourist van as they exited the airport and expected that they will only pay a few hundreds to get them to Cebu City. The airport tourist van driver proposed P1,300 as the fee to bring them all from the airport to IT Park Avida Tower in Lahug. They, especially the vlogger, cried foul, saying that they are being taken advantage of and goes on and on about the supposed managa-ay, mangigo-ay, and mamiratahay sa Mactan Airport. P1,300 is the rate per the tariff and the van driver just quoted it. 

This vlogger is a pinoy trucker, who has been living outside of the Philippines for two decades. His ego probably grew huge with his supposed “online influence”.  

Anyhow, a few minutes ago I used my Grab app and searched how much is the fee for the same route – Mactan Airport to IT Park, and would you know it’s P315 to P378 if they will take a Grab Taxi, the cheapest option. 

A taxi can only accommodate max of 4 passengers, so their group needs to get two vehicles. Let’s say if the taxi is metered, it’s P300 x 2 = P600. P600 is lesser than P1,300 asking rate of the driver, yes, but this is not an “apple to apple” comparison. The airport van rental service is a premium one.  If they want to pay the taxi rate, then they should get a metered taxi. Plain and simple. 

Mactan Cebu Airport Van and Car Rental Tariff (selected routes only) 

So anyway if you are coming to Cebu and plan to hire a tourist van to pick you and your group from the airport, familiarize yourself with the current tourist van and car rental fees and tariffs.  If too expensive, there are other options to get from Mactan airport to the city.

I am sharing just a few routes here, when I have the time I will share the full Tariff – routes and fees for the airport tourist vehicles.