The year-over-year increase is down from June and July, but it was still up $3.45 in August. The deseasonalized average of $51.81 is back to about the May level, but it’s still up from the September 2015 to November 2016 average of about $47. Industry fleet sizes continue to be in line with demand and there is reason for optimism in the near future.
The terrible devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey in the Houston area will have a major effect on the Texas vehicle rental industry for some time to come, but it did not seem to significantly affect the August quotes. The first serious threat and evacuation warnings started the week of Aug. 21, so the hurricane would have affected the Aug. 25 rate quotes.
The Southwest region, including Texas, was up $1.30, the lowest of the five regions. We also looked at the weekly quotes in July and August for all of Texas and for Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport. The Texas average is weighted by deplaning passenger volume. The largest year-to-year change seems to have been caused by a drop in the third week of July last year, unrelated to Hurricane Harvey.
In the last weekly survey, taken between 9:00 and 9:30 a.m. PDT on Sep. 1, no two-day rates (only seven-day rates) showed up for Hertz, Dollar, or Thrifty at any of the Texas airports in the top 50, except Dollar and Thrifty in Austin, which are not corporate-owned.
Jim Tennant of The Tennant Group and Michael Meyer of Rate-Highway Inc. have been conducting rate surveys on a weekly basis and providing analysis and comments where appropriate. They publish this monthly recap in our electronic edition and more comprehensive looks in the print editions.
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