Mangaluru: Online taxi aggregator Ola started its cab operation from Mangaluru International Airport on Thursday.

A few days ago, the Airports Authority of India had issued the work order to ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd. to operate its Ola cabs from the airport.

The work order was issued following its selection in the bidding process.

Airport director V.V. Rao said services of Ola would be in addition to services of prepaid Airport Taxis. “We will leave it to passengers to choose the service they want,” Mr. Rao told  reporters.

Meanwhile, Online Taxi Operators’ Association has welcomed the start of Ola services from the airport.

Association president B.K. Imtiyaz said for the last three years there were a number of incidents of Airport Taxi operators forcing online taxi aggregators to not pick up passengers from the airport.

Allowing operation of online taxi aggregators was necessary in terms of passenger safety and convenience, he said.

On November 7, there was a clash between representatives of online taxi aggregators and the Airport Taxi operators near the exit road of the airport.