All taxicab drivers who pick up passengers at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport will have to abide by the same rules and regulations that New Orleans cab drivers abide by, under a proposal approved Thursday by the New Orleans City Council.

The Aviation Board recently adopted the same rules and regulations for taxicab operations at the airport that the city adopted.

What it means is that cab drivers operating outside the city in surrounding parishes, who want to pick up passengers at the airport, will have to have the same equipment in their cabs - surveillance cameras, credit card machines and GPS devices - that the city's cab drivers are required to have.

Supporters of the airport's new cab rules say holding all cab drivers to a higher standard will improve the city's image in the eyes of visitors arriving at the airport. But not all cabbies agreed.

"This needs to be put off the agenda until it can be properly discussed and resolved," said Monroe Coleman with Coleman Cabs.