Flat Airport Rental Rates Continue in September

In September’s 50-city survey, rate quotes for the top 50 airports were down 0.6% from a year ago, the second consecutive month with a drop from last year. Washington D.C.’s Reagan National Airport had the highest average quote at $76.64.

by Staff

October 1, 2014

Flat Airport Rental Rates Continue in September — Rate data provided by Rate-Highway, a leading provider of revenue management services for the auto rental industry. Rates are an average of aggregator/OTA rates for all vendors present in the markets listed on the date of the survey. These tables and graph show the average of all base rate quotes per day for an ICAR at the six or 50 airports shown, for arrivals 15 to 21 days ahead of the date of the survey, for two- and seven-day rentals.

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With the help of Jim Tennant of The Tennant Group and Michael Meyer of Rate-Highway, Inc., we are conducting rate surveys on a weekly basis and providing analysis and comments where appropriate. We publish this monthly recap in our electronic edition and more comprehensive looks in the print editions.

September rate quotes were down $0.29 or 0.6% from the same month in 2013.

After about two years of steady increases, rates have flattened in the last two months — August rates were down $2.24 from the same month in 2013.

The double digit increases that we saw for two years were not sustainable, and we expect to see smaller increases for the rest of this year and into mid-2015. This assumes air travel will remain relatively strong and vehicle manufacturers are able to match production with retail demand and not dump excess fleet into the rental market.

Once again, there are large differences in rates between U.S. cities. In September, the highest average quote went to Reagan National Airport at $76.64, while the lowest average quote was Puerto Rico’s San Juan International Airport at $18.80, less than one quarter compared to Reagan Airport.

Over the last 52 weeks, Reagan National Airport and San Diego International Airport continue to be the highest and lowest, respectively.