Two top car rental franchises have abandoned Whanganui due to the city losing its ties with Air New Zealand. Air Chathams general manager Duane Emeny said he received an email from the Avis head office last week stating that both Avis and Budget had closed in Whanganui. "It's not a good thing - we want people to have a range of options and not having a leading car rental service, like Avis and Budget, takes away customer choice which means people may opt to fly to Palmerston North instead," he said. Mr Emeny said Air Chathams had started working with Avis and Budget and had altered their website with an online portal to the car rentals' website. "Interestingly, when we started a flight route from Auckland to Whakatane, Avis and Budget decided to pull out. "Unfortunately for us Air New Zealand has a lock on corporates as well as commercial agreements with companies like car rentals," Mr Emeny said. Whanganui mayor Hamish McDouall said it was a real disappointed the two companies had decided to leave. "It's a shame that these large businesses are pulling out but it may be an opportunity for a local car hire service to fill the gap," Mr McDouall said. A concerned customer rang the Avis head office yesterday after not being able to book a car on Saturday and was told Whanganui was not worth the spend for the franchise. "In a city of 46,000 people, with Air Chathams flying in three times and out three times, I find that hard to believe, " the customer said. "I know of two people just last week who picked up a rental in Whanganui to drive to Hastings." Budget Rent a Car New Zealand was wholly owned by the Avis Budget Group. It is understood that Hertz and Pegasus Rental Cars are the only franchises left in Whanganui.
This blog started off by focussing on NZ's smaller 3rd level airlines, past and present. It has evolved to trying to present some record of NZ's domestic airline operations and some of the larger charter operators, interesting NZ international airliner movements and photos I have taken around the country. Comments, corrections or contributions are welcome, Steve - westland831@gmail.com
Nothing is wrong. Avis Budget Group are contractually obliged to provide rental cars at the locations that Air New Zealand fly into, irrespective of if it is profitable for the Group. Whanganui was unlikely to be profitable and it made sense to close the Whanganui offices down.
ReplyDeleteIs this a new policy? I don't recall rental cars available in Wanaka, Oamaru or Masterton? Transport and accomodation infrustructure has a lot to contribute toward sustainable air services.
DeleteAvis have agreements with most of the worlds biggest airlines, including the Qantas Group.
Whangunui has city status and had a reasonable number of flight in and out of the airport until Air NZ rationalised its regional services.
DeleteWanaka is to close to Queenstown, Oamaru and Masterton don't and didn't have enough flights to warrant a airport depot. In fact Masterton does not have an Avis or Hertz city depot.
And thus I believe they contributed to the failure of places like Wanaka, unless people had friends already there or that was home... why pay more to fly there and have no ground service options once you land.
DeleteWhanganui is not a city as defined by the Local Government Act 2002 (hence why it has a District and not City Council).
DeleteIf Air Chathams is flying a schedule parallel to what a eagle provided, only using a larger 33 seat Saab. Can we assume loadings are less than a Beech? Or has the customer base changed dramatically?
ReplyDeleteBecause capacity has increased since Eagle departed.