The state launched a 24-hour airport shuttle service Sunday that offers door-to-door rides at reasonable fees but which cab drivers say will hurt their struggling businesses.

Just after midnight Sunday, Maui-based SpeediShuttle began taking its first passengers — 112 Japanese and Australian tourists — from Honolulu Airport to Waikiki for a one-way fee starting at $14.55.

SpeediShuttle’s 32 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans can carry 11 customers each and began offering service Sunday along the H-1 freeway corridor from Kahala to Ko Olina.

Beginning Jan. 1, the service will be expanded to most areas on Oahu, said Cecil Morton, president and CEO of SpeediShuttle.

"If we’re going to someone’s cabin in a rain forest accessible only by four-wheel drive, we’re not going there," Morton said. "But we’re going to be substantially everywhere else on Oahu."

The company has hired 80 new employees and will add another 45 workers and 15 more vans when it launches its Oahu-wide operation on Jan. 1, Morton said.

The state Department of Transportation selected SpeediShuttle for an exclusive, five-year contract to operate the shuttle service, Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz said Sunday at a Honolulu Airport press conference.

"For all of you citizens and residents who have been trying to get a ride to and from the airport, don’t want to pay that cab fee, don’t want to bother your family members to get picked up at odd hours, this is a big deal for us," Schatz said. "We finally have affordable, fast shuttle service for everyone. … Lots of people I know will be using this service."

No taxpayer money is being used for the shuttle operation, Schatz said.

SpeediShuttle employees will greet arriving passengers in the airport baggage claim areas, issue them a shuttle boarding pass and get them aboard a van within five minutes after they collect their luggage, Morton said.

SpeediShuttle boarding areas are at four spots around Honolulu Airport.

Several airport taxi drivers had heard about Speedi-Shuttle Sunday and were not happy with the competition, which they called "unfair."

About 400 cabdrivers wait in one of three staging areas around the airport, waiting for their turn for a fare. Many of them wondered Sunday why SpeediShuttle employees can solicit business in the baggage claim area while they have to wait — often for hours — outside the airport until a taxi dispatcher outside the baggage-claim areas calls them.

Depending on traffic and how long it takes to get to Waikiki, several cabdrivers said, the average fare for an entire cab full of passengers runs $32 to $35.

The per-person cost to take a cab can therefore be cheaper than using Speedi-Shuttle, they said, depending on how many people ride in the cab.

But overall, cabbie Khaled Salameh said, SpeediShuttle "is going to hurt us. Everyone over here has a family, a wife and responsibilities."

Driver Henry Dang said he often works 10 to 12 hours just to get three airport fares that each average $35. His expenses include gasoline, maintenance and insurance. Drivers also pay $4 to the taxi dispatching vendor, AMPCO Express, for each fare.

"It’s really slow right now," Dang said. Adding more competition, he said, "is just not fair."

Morton said his company doesn’t compete with cabdrivers.

"When people want a taxi, they’ll take a taxi," he said. "When they want a shuttle, they’ll take a shuttle. People want choices, and we’re a vendor that offers a different service."

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On the net:

» To make a reservation, visit speedishuttle.com/reser­vations or call 877-242-5777 toll-free.