The vehicles provide transportation to 80 locations including the Princes’ Islands, Ortaköy, Ataköy and Sarıyer. Businessmen, artists, athletes, bureaucrats and state officials for whom time is important often choose to use sea taxis, an official from TEKNOMAR -- the company that manages the sea taxis -- has said.
“The number of calls we received at our call center was about 206,000 as of the end of November 2010. About 45 percent of these calls -- 91,000 -- wanted taxis. We carried more than 80,000 passengers,” TEKNOMAR General Director Gürkan Çanga said.
Çanga said the sea taxis are in high demand and many famous people have been among their passengers, including Bülent and Oya Eczacıbaşı, Acun Ilıcalı, Ajda Pekkan, Kenan Doğulu, Sibel Can, Kenan İmirzalıoğlu, Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ, Beyazıt Öztürk, Emre Belözoğlu, Daniel Guiza, Roberto Carlos, Şenes Erzik, 50 Cent, Adriana Lima, Monaco’s Prince Albert, Michel Platini, as well as a number of ministers and mayors, ambassadors and consuls general, foreign ministers and high-ranking officials, and many Galatasaray and Beşiktaş football players.
In the beginning there were six sea taxis in operation, while today there are 15. TEKNOMAR aims to increase the number of vehicles to 25 this year and to 35 in the first half of 2012. The taxis start at TL 25 and charge TL 15 for each mile traveled. Though many believe that sea taxi service is expensive, Çanga said the rates are quite reasonable. “For example, a sea taxi departing at 8 a.m. from Çengelköy to Kabataş costs about TL 70. A taxi has the capacity to carry 10 people. There is no other transportation vehicle that offers a 10 to 12-minute ride from Çengelköy to Kabataş. It means TL 7 per person for 10-minute ride,” he explained.
