Doug Kreulen, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority, gave the keynote address at the Forum on Growth and Regional Challenges at MTSU on March 21 while students gathered outside to protest against Kreulen’s alleged involvement in banning rideshare drivers from operating on airport grounds.
While Kreulen spoke, about eight students gathered outside the James Union Building to voice their frustrations with Kreulen and the Airport Authority on behalf of the Tennessee Drivers Union. Some frustrations included a small rideshare lot and rarely cleaned bathrooms.
“After having, like, hundreds of conversations with [drivers], a lot of them are driving like 13 to 15 hours a day, barely making ends meet,” Kunhi Kadir, a volunteer with the Southern Youth Solidarity Movement and an MTSU junior studying sociology, said.
“In the WhatsApp chat that we have, they’ll constantly send pictures of their rides. Uber is taking up to like 80% of their share.” Sidelines could not independently verify that claim.
The Tennessee Drivers Union formed in August 2024 after alleging the airport, Uber and Lyft were taking advantage of drivers by allowing out-of-state drivers to work in Tennessee.
Students waved signs and distributed union flyers to attendees entering the building. The protesters felt Kreulen was responsible for banning more than 30 rideshare drivers for protesting on airport grounds and that the Airport Authority had ignored their demands for better facilities.
Drivers said they began to receive messages from Uber telling them they could no longer operate at the airport because of a protest caravan in February 2025 that called for a ban on out-of-state drivers.
“Due to the nature of the incident, the airport is restricting certain driver-partners from accepting rides or dropping passengers off at BNA permanently, pursuant to the terms of Uber’s agreement with the airport,” the message said.
Kreulen, unaffected by the demonstration, spoke about many changes coming to the Nashville International Airport, such as a new terminal, better baggage handling system, better access to the airport from Donelson Pike and longer runways to allow for bigger jets – but not about rideshare drivers.
The CEO focused on the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority’s plan to get ahead of the city’s projected growth. The airport authority plans to serve over 100,000 people daily in 10 years — almost 40 million passengers annually.
The airport is responsible for an estimated $12.1 billion impact on the Middle Tennessee economy and will have invested close to $5 billion in the airport between 2017 and 2029, Kreulen said.
“We are now the seventh biggest airport for Southwest Airlines as they continue to grow that crew base,” Kreulen said. “What does that mean in Tennessee? Well, before, we had 250 Southwest pilots, and now we’re growing to 750 Southwest pilots.”
Union drivers claimed that Nashville’s $31 billion tourism industry would halt if rideshare labor disappeared. A strike last summer showed how far the union is willing to go. The airport has not returned a request to comment on whether they plan to meet with union leaders again.
In the meantime, Kadir passed along a message from one of the drivers in the union.
“He’s extremely agitated that the airport basically [told] them that they were banned for unfairly picking up passengers when they were [on strike],” Kadir said. “Why does the airport, like, toy with drivers’ lives?”
Drivers may catch a “brake”
Republican Rep. Rush Bricken introduced HB0879 on February 4, 2025. The bill “prohibits an individual without a valid transportation network license from accepting or transporting a prearranged ride originating in this state.”
Essentially, the bill updates Tennessee’s rideshare laws to only allow those with a Tennessee license to operate Uber or Lyft within the state – a common law in many other states where Uber and Lyft operate.
“Drivers like from Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, can come here to drive because we don’t have legislation,” Joni Bicknese, a veteran Lyft driver, said in a July 2024 interview. “We don’t have state laws stopping that. But as drivers, we can’t drive in those states.”
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