Rental car companies are offering millions of dollars for operating rights at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport, The Citizen’s Voice (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) reports.

National Car Rental/Alamo submitted a bid of $921,340; Avis bid $1.3 million; Budget Car Rental, $1.2 million; Hertz, $1.3 million, and Enterprise Rent-A-Car, $757,573. All except Enterprise now operate at the airport.

Assistant Airport Director Michael W. Conner reported the 19,411 passengers who flew out of the airport last month was 4.6 percent more than the 18,562 in October 2005. Overall numbers for the year still lag behind last year by 3.4 percent, according to The Citizen’s Voice (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.).

But Conner also reported general aviation operations (takeoffs and landings) increased 52 percent with 2,626 operations last month, compared to 1,722 in October 2005, and aviation revenues increased as well.

Airport operations showed a net income of $81,327 last month, compared to $210,057 in October 2005, Conner said. That’s a drop of 61 percent. Year-to-date income is $437,803, or 27 percent less than $600,087 for the first 10 months of last year.