Getting Home From JFK Is Terrible, and Lyft Data Confirms It
Anyone who has ever flown into New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) knows this to be true: Getting where you need to go from there — be it home, the office or frankly anywhere else in the Big Apple — can be a truly awful experience.
And according to data Lyft shared with TPG Thursday morning, it doesn't just feel like an eternity. It really does take travelers longer to get from JFK to their ultimate destination than it would from any other airport.
"Lyft Business riders arriving at ... JFK [saw] the longest average ride time," the report confirmed.
Though JFK may be the worst airport in the nation in terms of average time spent getting from the airport to where you want to go, it is not (surprisingly) flanked by other New York City-area airports. According to Lyft, the other offending airports in the bottom three were Denver International Airport (DEN) followed by Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
For business travelers eager to get where they're going without first waiting eons in traffic (read: purgatory), McCarran International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas saw the shortest average ride times. San Jose International Airport (SJC) had the second-shortest average drive time, followed by Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX).
The Lyft report also determined that Southwest Airlines is the most popular airline with business travelers, based on drop-off data.
"We've seen incredible growth in the business travel space year over year," a Lyft spokesperson said — and the report indicates that the ride-sharing app has seen a 70% increase in business traveler usage.
As a result, Lyft is now opening its Lyft Business Rewards program to all riders with a business profile. (You can make one with a valid work e-mail; Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and other similar domains won't be accepted.) And from now until September 30 at midnight, Lyft-users can earn $5 for every qualifying ride costing $10 or more, for up to $100 in Lyft credits. To be eligible, rides must be booked in the Lyft Business profile.
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