- Who: Heraklion TAXI Owners Association (Σύλλογος Ιδιοκτητών ΤΑΞΙ Ηρακλείου)
- What: 48-hour warning strike
- When: Wednesday 18, and Thursday, February 19, 2026
- Where: Gathering at Heraklion International Airport at 09:30
- Why: Opposition to Article 52 of the Transport Ministry draft bill, which they argue equates taxis with private hire vehicles and opens the door to loss of transport work
There are legislative texts that pass quietly, and there are clauses that reach directly into the structure of a profession. For taxi owners in Heraklion, Article 52 of the Transport Ministry’s draft bill belongs to the second category.
Beginning Wednesday morning, licensed taxi operators across the city withdrew their services for a 48-hour warning strike, signaling that what is being debated in Athens is not, in their view, a technical adjustment but a redefinition of the sector’s boundaries.
The association argues that the contested article effectively places taxis and private hire vehicles with drivers on equal footing, altering long-established regulatory distinctions and, as they describe it, creating conditions for the appropriation of transport work by private vehicles and multinational digital platforms.
Their objection is not framed as resistance to modernization. Rather, they insist that the proposed reform fails to address chronic issues within the industry — including enforcement gaps and market imbalances — while simultaneously introducing new distortions that may weaken oversight and privilege specific business structures.
The airport gathering is not incidental. Heraklion’s airport functions as one of the island’s most visible transport nodes, especially during peak tourism periods, and represents a significant share of taxi turnover. Demonstrating this underscores both the economic stakes and the symbolic weight of the dispute.
Across Europe, similar tensions have emerged between traditional licensed transport services and app-based mobility platforms operating under different compliance regimes. In Heraklion, that broader debate has now taken a concrete form, anchored in Article 52 and measured in forty-eight hours of halted service.
Whether the strike remains a warning or evolves into a broader mobilization will depend on how the legislative consultation proceeds in the coming days.
For now, the message from Heraklion’s taxi owners is direct: the future structure of urban transport is not an abstract policy matter. It determines who drives, who regulates, and who ultimately carries the passenger.
