An additional $10 facility charge on customers at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, Calif. will be assessed on each transaction to help fund a proposed $100-million regional transportation center at the airport, according to the Glendale NewsPress.

The $100-million regional transportation center will incorporate taxis, buses, light-rail, and rental cars at the airport.

The customer facility charge will be added to each transaction at rental-car outposts servicing the airport. The collected funds would serve as a primary funding source for the design, construction and operation of a proposed consolidated rental car facility, officials said.

The fee was approved in September for a two-year period. If the proposed rental car facility fell through, the money would go to improving and relocating the rental car return facility.

Car rental companies that are currently spread throughout the airport would be centrally located next to local roadways and the Metrolink-Amtrak train station. An airport spokesman said it was hoped that the facility would enhance the availability of rental car service and promote competition among the rental car companies.

The NewsPress article, however, quoted some customers who said the fee amounted to an invasive tax on their travel tabs.

Rental car companies are responsible for collecting the fee from the traveler, reporting the revenue collected and remitting the revenue monthly to the airport operator.

The new rental car charge is allowed by the state, and many airports have chosen to invoke it, including San Francisco, Oakland, Fresno and Ontario.

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