Most airports have the following requirements for rental car companies:

• On-airport rental car companies (1) pay a fee calculated as 10 percent of their airport-related gross revenues; (2) guarantee to pay a minimum annual fee (or minimum annual guarantee amount) regardless of their airport-related business revenue (or number of customers); and (3) lease and pay rent for airport facilities used to clean, store, and maintain vehicles; customer-facing counters; and back-of-house office space. In addition, some airports, particularly those having CONRACs, require on-airport rental car companies to collect a CFC from customers to finance rental car facilities.
• Off-airport rental car companies pay a fee calculated as between 3 percent and 12.5 percent of their airport-related gross revenues, with most airport operators charging these companies a fee of between 8 percent and 10 percent. At airports with CONRACs, off-airport rental car companies are required to drop off and pick up their customers at the CONRAC, which may result in their customers being double-bused (i.e., having to transfer between the company’s operated shuttle vehicle and a bus or people mover connecting the airport terminal with the CONRAC).

To ensure desired levels of customer safety and experience, airport operators typically require on-airport rental car companies to provide

• Service during all hours of scheduled passenger airline operations.
• Car seats, baby seats, and ADA-compliant vehicles upon request.
• Participation in their airport businesses by certified disadvantaged businesses enterprises.
• Well-maintained vehicles meeting contractual requirements, including compliance with manufacturer recalls.
• Maintenance of required insurance and incidental coverage.
• A well-qualified local manager available to respond to requests around the clock.
• Staff who have obtained airport-issued identification badges and have been trained in operating vehicles on airport property, airport security, and emergency response.

In comparison, as described in Chapter 9, at those airports where P2P carsharing companies are permitted to operate, these companies have fewer such customer experience requirements.

8.2 Operations of P2P Carsharing Businesses on Airports

At the time this report was prepared, Turo was the largest P2P carsharing business serving almost 90 U.S. airports. Avail, which previously served about 17 U.S. airports, closed its airport locations in January 2023. As of August 2023, other carsharing businesses, such as Getaround and Gig Car Share, did not promote service at airports and were available in fewer communities than Turo. In June 2023, Uber Technologies announced plans to initiate a P2P carsharing service, Uber Carshare, as a pilot program in Boston and Toronto. Uber staff indicated that there are no plans to offer Uber Carshare at U.S. airports.

With Turo (and Avail when it served airports), customers use the company-provided app or website to select the specific vehicle they wish to lease, the date and location of their pickup (e.g., the airport name), and supplemental insurance if not included in the fee quoted. When customers deplane at the airport, they proceed to the designated pickup location, where both the customer and vehicle owner (i.e., the host) or a company representative inspect the vehicle before handoff. (Turo allows approved customers using Turo Go, a feature offered by the company, to pick up their vehicle without the owner being present.) Before boarding their outbound flight, enplaning customers meet at the designated vehicle drop-off location and return the vehicle to the host. Although Turo and Avail offer customers a similar process for selecting and reserving

a vehicle, each company employed a different handoff process for airport customers (affecting how each company would have operated at the airport landside):

• On-airport handoffs. For example, when renting or returning a vehicle a Turo customer is told where to meet the vehicle owner or host on the airport: in a public parking facility or sometimes at the terminal curbside. Customers completing an exchange on the airport generally walk between the airport terminal and the location where they are to pick up or drop off their vehicle, but the operation differs depending on the airport, the use of shuttles at some airports, and other factors. Normally, during an on-airport exchange the vehicle owner (or their representative) uses a separate vehicle to leave the airport after handing the vehicle off to a customer and, similarly, travels to the airport in a separate vehicle when picking the vehicle up from a returning customer. Thus, as many as eight vehicle trips may be associated with an on-airport P2P carsharing exchange—two by the customer, two by the vehicle owner, and as many four additional vehicle trips depending on how the host travels to and from the airport after dropping off and before picking up the vehicle.
• Off-airport handoffs. With an off-airport exchange, an employee of the P2P carsharing business, rather than the vehicle owner, helps the customer complete the vehicle handoff and return the vehicle when it is dropped off. For example, when renting and returning a vehicle, Avail customers were met by an Avail employee or representative (rather than by the vehicle owner) at a designated portion of a privately operated off-airport parking lot (e.g., a lot managed by LAZ Parking, Park ’N Fly, the Parking Spot, or similar private businesses). Avail customers were transported between the airport terminal and the off-airport parking lot in a courtesy vehicle provided by the off-airport parking business.

As described in Chapter 10, as of April 2024 almost 90 U.S. airports have business agreements with a P2P carsharing company, with more than half of these airports classified as small hubs or non-hubs by the FAA (Turo 2024).

Because there are more than 500 commercial service airports in the United States, most airports do not yet have a business agreement with a P2P carsharing company. Without a business agreement, there is no formal method for the airport owner to (1) monitor and control the use of airport facilities for P2P carsharing transactions, (2) monitor the quality and safety of vehicles being used, or (3) charge fees or otherwise generate revenue from P2P carsharing companies. (Chapter 9 provides additional information regarding the business relationships between airport operators and P2P carsharing companies.)

8.3 Use of Rental Cars by Airport Passengers in 2023

Table 8-1 presents the percentage of originating and terminating airline passengers who used rental cars as their airport access mode at selected airports. (Originating and terminating airline passenger volumes exclude connections for those passengers who are transferring between flights at an airport and who do not use surface access modes such as rental cars.) As shown, with the exception of the three New York–area airports and Denver International Airport, between 9 percent and 15 percent of all originating and terminating airline passengers use a rental car for their travel to or from the airport.

The proportion of airline passengers choosing to rent a car at the airports shown in Table 8-1 varies depending on airline passenger trip purpose, the availability of public transport, the proximity of major destinations, and other factors:

• Airline passenger trip purpose. Leisure passengers, who are often traveling with family members and have several pieces of baggage, are more likely to rent a car for several days than business passengers who typically have smaller travel parties and fewer pieces of baggage and

Table 8-1. Airline passenger use of rental cars at selected airports.

Source: InterVISTAS, August 2023, based on data gathered from individual airports.

are more likely to rent a car for only 1 or 2 days. For these reasons, Orlando is reported to be the largest rental car market in the United States (MCO 2024).

• Availability of public transport. Fewer airline passengers are likely to rent a car when those traveling to the city center or other popular destinations can economically and easily use high-quality public transportation services (e.g., scheduled bus or rail) or on-demand services (e.g., taxicabs and TNCs) or when parking at these destinations is limited or expensive. For example, the three airports serving New York City, which are well served by public transportation, have the lowest rental car market shares among the selected airports listed in Table 8-1.
• Proximity of major destinations. More passengers are likely to rent a car when popular attractions are far from an airport, making taxicabs, TNCs, and public transportation expensive and often impractical. For example, Denver International Airport, where many passengers are traveling to destinations outside the Denver metropolitan area, has the highest rental car market shares among the selected airports listed in Table 8-1.
• Proportion of locally originating airline passengers. Though most airports serve a balance of locally originating passengers and non-resident passengers, a few airports primarily serve one or the other. Non-residents are more likely to rent a car upon arriving at an airport than local residents, who are more likely to have access to a private vehicle. Honolulu, Orlando, and Las Vegas are examples of airports that serve primarily non-residents. It is suggested that a relatively low use of rental cars in the market at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport is attributable to the high proportion of residents in this market.

Table 8-2 provides an example of the split of rental car revenues or market shares among the traditional and P2P carsharing companies at an airport. As shown, at Denver International Airport the traditional on-airport rental car companies had about 90 percent of the total rental car revenues or market, with P2P carsharing companies (i.e., Turo) having a 5.2 percent market share

Table 8-2. Rental car market shares at Denver International Airport.

Source: Data provided for 12 months ending October 2023, Denver International Airport, November 2023.

for the period between October 2022 and October 2023. At the time these data were gathered, Turo’s revenue and market share at Denver International Airport were larger than several traditional on-airport rental car brands, including Dollar, Fox, Payless, and Thrifty.

Within the airport industry, the annual gross revenues reported by each rental car company are commonly used to determine the company’s share of the total rental market or its market share. Market shares are used to allocate and prioritize the space in CONRACs and other facilities that an airport leases to rental car companies. The proportion of airport customers served by each company may be different than the company’s share of total reported revenues, as some rental car brands offer cars at lower average rates than do others. Therefore, the airport industry’s use of revenues to determine market shares may result in a potential underreporting (or over-reporting) of the proportion of customers served by some brands or companies. For example, if P2P carsharing businesses offer cars at lower average daily rates than do traditional rental car companies, the proportion of customers using P2P carsharing could be greater than the reported market share.

8.4 Use of P2P Carsharing by Airport Passengers in 2023

To determine the use of P2P carsharing by airport passenger (i.e., airport market shares), data were requested from airports where P2P carsharing businesses report transaction data or revenues. Table 8-3 presents the proportion of rental car customers using P2P carsharing at those airports that had business agreements with a P2P carsharing company for more than 6 months and that shared current market share data. Annual (or available partial-year) market share data were sought from only those airports having agreements for 6 months or more to represent relatively mature markets and avoid data representing only the initial few months of P2P carsharing operations. As shown, as of 2023, P2P carsharing businesses compose a relatively small share of the total market for rental cars at most airports.

As shown in Table 8-3, the P2P carsharing share of the total rental car market varied from about 0.6 percent to 5.2 percent of the total rental car market at the selected airports, with P2P carsharing companies having 3 percent or less of the total rental car market at most of these airports.

At most of the selected airports, fewer than about 0.3 percent of all originating (or terminating) airline passengers used P2P carsharing as their airport access mode (i.e., the P2P carsharing market share was about 2 percent of the total rental car industry’s 12.5 percent share of all surface

Table 8-3. Rental car customers using P2P carsharing at selected airports.

Source: InterVISTAS Consulting, based on data provided by individual airports, August 2023.

access modes). Even at Denver International Airport, which of the selected airports had both the highest proportion of airline passengers renting a car and one of the largest proportions of passengers choosing a P2P carsharing company, only about 1.0 percent of all originating airline passengers used P2P carsharing (i.e., the P2P carsharing share was 5.2 percent of the 21 percent market share for all rental cars).

While relatively few airline passengers currently use P2P carsharing, small changes in the market share of this industry would be noticeable because of its current low initial base. That is, even a 0.5 percent increase in market share (i.e., increasing from 1.0 percent to 1.5 percent) would represent a 50 percent increase in the proportion of airline passengers selecting P2P carsharing. Such an increase, if it were to occur, would be readily apparent to the traditional rental car companies as well as to airport management.

8.5 Factors Contributing to and Constraining Airline Passenger Use of P2P Carsharing Services

It is likely that in future years there will be changes in the use of rental cars by airline passengers and in P2P carsharing’s share of the overall rental car market. Many observers (InterVISTAS et al. 2021) expect that the use of traditional rental cars will change in the coming years, considering several factors:

• Increased competition. The success of Turo may encourage other companies to offer P2P carsharing at airports and elsewhere. New entrants could offer different pricing structures and use different business models, leading to lower costs and new services. If so, this could reduce the existing airport market shares of traditional rental car companies but might not affect the total percentage of airline passengers renting cars.
• Changes in airline passenger use of rental cars. At many airports, the use of rental cars by airline passengers declined before 2019 because of competition from TNCs. However, TNC mode shares appear to have stabilized at many airports as rising TNC fares have decreased the cost advantage TNCs once offered compared with rental cars for short trips.
• Increased use of self-check-in. Traditional rental car companies are increasingly encouraging customers to use kiosks and company-provided apps to check in and thus minimize the need to interface with company employees. Some feel that the continued prevalence and trend toward self-check-ins will benefit P2P carsharing businesses.
• Adoption of electric vehicles. Traditional rental car companies are transitioning to electric vehicles (EVs) recognizing that many major automobile manufacturers have established policies to offer only EVs by 2035. This transition is expected to severely affect how the traditional rental car companies operate—replacing fuel pumps with electric charging stations and incentivizing customers to return vehicles charged. However, the transition is not expected to affect the proportion of airline passengers renting cars.

  However, the transition to EVs may increase P2P carsharing market shares. This is because some airline passengers are likely to prefer to continue to rent cars having internal combustion engines (ICEs) and may shun the EVs offered by traditional rental car companies until they become accustomed to operating these vehicles. At the time this report was prepared, InterVISTAS had observed examples of such preferences at ready car areas where queues of EVs were waiting to be rented while ICE cars were rented more readily. Ultimately, rental car customers will grow comfortable operating EVs but until then, P2P companies may have an advantage: these companies tend to lease older vehicles (i.e., ICE cars) as opposed to the offerings of traditional companies, which will increasingly be EVs.

  Another challenge facing the rental car industry as it transitions from ICEs to EVs is the ability of the electrical grids serving airports to provide the electrical power needed to support the desired fast-charging stations. A lack of electrical power at airports could favor P2P

carsharing companies, as P2P hosts can charge vehicles anywhere in the community and then deliver the vehicles to the airport, while traditional rental car companies tend to fuel (or charge) vehicles at the airport. Thus, if the electrical grid were to constrain the use of fast chargers, traditional companies would incur greater labor costs and time preparing cars for customers than would P2P carsharing companies.

• Introduction of autonomous vehicles. The widespread introduction of autonomous vehicles (AVs) is likely to be the next major event adversely affecting the use of rental cars at airports. These effects are expected to result from (1) TNCs and car rental companies being early adopters and operators of AVs and (2) the convergence of TNCs, car rentals, carsharing, and taxicabs into a common business model. Although the timeline for adoption of AVs at airports remains unclear, ACRP Research Report 225: Rethinking Airport Parking Facilities to Protect and Enhance Non-Aeronautical Revenues (InterVISTAS et al. 2021) suggests that AVs will represent over 25 percent of the trips at major airports by 2030 to 2040 and up to 50 percent of the vehicle fleet by 2060 in some regions, depending on financial incentives, regulatory environment, and public acceptance.

  The introduction of AVs will alter the business and operational models of airport rental car companies. Traditional rental car companies will no longer need to lease airport property to maintain and store cars, as they will likely seek off-airport locations for these functions to reduce their costs. P2P carsharing companies may have fewer cars available to lease as private vehicle ownership (and the number of potential hosts owning one or two vehicles) declines. For example, rather than owning a car, individuals may prefer to lease an AV when needed or participate in common ownership of AVs, reducing the pool of potential hosts—excluding Powerhosts or others owning vehicles for the sole purpose of renting them out through a P2P business app. For these reasons, the use of rental cars by airline passengers is expected to decline and ultimately transition to the new common business model.