Several Hawaii taxicab companies say they object to the state Department of Transportation’s decision to approve a six-month extension for a pilot program that allows ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft to make pickups at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu.

DOT spokesman Tim Sakahara said the pilot was extended so the state could gather more data on how the new service mixes with current airport services. That data will be used over the coming months to help DOT make a permanent decision regarding ride-hailing companies and to begin modernizing its rules, which haven’t been amended since 2002, Sakahara said.

“A lot of technology has changed in that time and with (ride-hailing) companies as well,” he said. “The emphasis will be on the Uber and Lyft companies, but we’re taking a holistic look, too.”

The process, which is expected to take approximately four to six months, will include a public comment period. Taxicab companies say the process will be contentious. But Sakahara said the companies received positive feedback from ride-hailing users during the original pilot, which began Dec. 1, 2017, and was slated to run through Wednesday.

The companies provided more than 50,000 pickups combined from the airport, and during that time, only five drivers from Uber and Lyft were cited for attempting to pick up passengers outside of the designated airport pickup locations, DOT said.

Tabatha Chow, Uber Hawaii senior operations manager, said the company’s local operation has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from riders and drivers. “So we will continue to work closely with the Department of Transportation and airport staff to ensure Uber has a permanent home at HNL,” she said.

Robert Deluze, owner of Roberts Taxi, said he hopes that day never comes.

“I am so upset right now. DOT is killing the airport taxicab drivers,” Deluze said. “Some of them have lost 50 percent of their income.”

Deluze said approximately 125 drivers operating under his Roberts Taxi dome make airport pickups through the on-demand stand run by AMPCO. During the first month of December, the first month of the pilot, Deluze said on-demand AMPCO drivers told him they lost 8,000 loads.

Deluze said he and other taxicab companies met with DOT shortly after the launch of the first ride- hailing pilot to complain. Deluze said many were angry and blindsided by the extension.

David Jung, general manager of EcoCab, said DOT’s pilot allows Uber and Lyft to operate without the usual permitting process that every other ground transportation provider must follow, to pickup in areas reserved exclusively for them while all other permittees must share already chaotic pickup areas, and to charge and pass on to customers an airport pickup fee when taxis are specifically prohibited from doing the same.

“All the while, HDOT has hamstrung the 200-plus, on-demand curbside taxi drivers at the airport by forcing them to be managed by (AMPCO and) awarding them a series of no-bid contracts for the last 14 years. Have they no shame?” Jung said.

Howard Higa, president and CEO of TheCab, said it’s difficult to manage a fleet of cabs when city and state rule makers have given ride-hailing companies a “free-for-all.”

“It always impacts business when you take away customers from the airport — it’s the largest money maker for any transportation company,” Higa said. “I’m losing money and drivers.”

Higa said one of the worst aspects for him is that the state can’t properly quantify if it’s gaining or losing money on the pilot since ride-hailing companies self report their trips.

Sakahara said he could not immediately provide a dollar figure of what the state earned on Uber and Lyft airport pickups during the pilot. During the extension, Uber and Lyft will continue to pay the Airports Division 7 percent of pre­arranged trip fares, he said.