New Wichita airport shuttle service really taking off

Lam Nguyen’s airport shuttle business is off to a better start than he expected – and his expectations were pretty high.

“We’ve just got a lot of traction,” said Nguyen, owner of Wichita Airport Shuttle. “It’s a lot busier than we thought it would be. We’re excited.”

The business offers a one-way rate of $59 to or from anywhere in Wichita and several surrounding towns.

Nguyen says he figured there was a demand for a shuttle service to Wichita Eisenhower National Airport because the car dealership where he works previously offered it as a complimentary service to customers. When the service got too popular for the dealership to continue, Nguyen said, he heard from people who were willing to pay for it.

“A lot of these clients said, ‘Why don’t you start this? We’re going to pay the (airport) parking fees anyway. And we don’t want to leave our $80,000 cars at the airport anyway.’ ”

Even people without $80,000 cars use the service, he added.

“We’re a safe way to travel for a lot of people that don’t want to take a (cab), or they don’t want Uber coming to their home at 4 in the morning.

“We’re not a limo service. We’re the happy medium, if you will.”

Some people are worried their vehicle will get dinged while parked at the airport or realize they’ve asked their neighbor for a ride there once too often, he said.

Nguyen said accounts with corporate clients are a big part of the business. His decade of experience selling luxury cars – he’s a salesman for Mercedes-Benz of Wichita – has helped him grow that part of the business, he said.

“My role in the company is to get in at some of these big businesses that have a lot of travel,” he said. “I’ve been able to meet a lot of the big businessmen in Wichita.”

Wichita Airport Shuttle offers rides in three Mercedes-Benz vans, with two more of the vehicles ordered for delivery later this year.

“We’ll buy more vehicles as we grow,” Nguyen said.

The vans hold up to six passengers and their luggage. The $59 rate applies whether there are one or six passengers.

Occasional specials, such as one in which customers were charged whatever their airport parking fee would have been, have been popular, Nguyen said.

Nguyen employs eight part- and full-time drivers and dispatchers. He’s still in the business of selling cars, by the way.

“My role was to just sort of set the foundation, hire the people and allow them to run the company,” he said of Wichita Airport Shuttle.

“I still have my day job. I really enjoy what I do.”

This story was originally published March 29, 2017 at 3:47 PM with the headline "New Wichita airport shuttle service really taking off."