I used to arrange rides for people to the airport as part of my job. My experience was that yellow cab was inconsistent, frequently would fail to arrive for morning pickups without notice, operators were consistently short/impatient, even events like calling for a cab and being told 10-15 minutes only to call back half an hour later to be told the same thing weren't uncommon.

Luxury towncar services however did the trick. This was before Uber/Lyft of course.