Magazine for the professional car and truck rental industry.
Issue link: https://autorentalnews.epubxp.com/i/236613
INDUSTRY NEWS IN-DEPTH the limos are licensed with the airport and pay the appropriate airport fees for each round trip. In return, FlightCar is suing the city of Millbrae after the city pulled the company's use permit in November over various code violations. "We are involved in a bunch of litigation at the moment, but are continuing to operate normally at our Millbrae/San Francisco location," writes Kevin Petrovic, co-founder and president of FlightCar. "We have been searching for a much larger site to relocate to as we are expanding quite rapidly, and this process is ongoing. In the meantime, we don't expect any interruption to our operation." vices, and this includes supporting those who book through travel agencies," says Zaparade. FlightCar rentals through Travelport will involve a travel agent intermediary, though offering rentals through a Travelport-connected consumer portal such as Orbitz may be in the future. "Hopefully as the relationship matures we will be able to move to a b-to-c [business to consumer] (via OTA) model," writes Petrovic. In terms of negotiating the deal, "We think Travelport was very reasonable," writes Petrovic. "Their primary concern was to fully understand our model, understand how it will be a different experience for the consumer, and to make sure that travel agents were aware of these differences and wouldn't be taken by surprise." Regarding Travelport's fee for connectivity, FlightCar's rental prices via the GDS should align closely with the rates on the FlightCar website, writes Petrovic. "We have no plans to raise the rates to cover fees at this time." EXPANSION TO THIRD AIRPORT LOCATION Backed by venture capital, celebrity Ryan Seacrest and the founders of Airbnb and Reddit, FlightCar was incubated by college-aged Zaparde, Petrovic and Shri Ganeshram out of a startup accelerator in Cincinnati in 2012. Serving Los Angeles International Airport since November, FlightCar allows travelers to rent out their vehicles in exchange for free parking, a car wash, shuttle service and the opportunity to earn up to $10 per day. The Los Angeles location is the startup's largest, with capacity to hold over 110 parked cars and a converted warehouse building for restroom facilities, car wash, staff use and storage, according to FlightCar. LAX customers must take the shuttle service from the terminals to the airport's public parking lot. There, a FlightCar attendant will pick them up in a Lincoln Town Car and drive them to FlightCar's lot, about four minutes from the airport. As in San Francisco and Boston, the complimentary Town Car service will continue to be provided by local independent ground transportation companies, now managed by an automated platform integrated with FlightCar's new mobile web app. "FlightCar incorporates a level of automation and technology that the conventional car rental industry has been slow for decades to develop," says Zaparde. "Our innovations are making car rental affordable and fair again." NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH TRAVEL PROVIDER In December, FlightCar joined forces with Travelport — operator of the Apollo, Galileo and Worldspan global distribution systems (GDS) — to offer its car-share service to customers booking through Worldspan-connected travel agents. "We are committed to helping travelers fnd the best options for parking and car rental ser- Europe's best seeks America's brightest. (Become a Sixt rent a car Franchisee) Find out how you can benefit from our world-class brand, the customer base of a global car rental company and visibility on all major online and offline booking channels. We offer you our state-of-the-art rental software and rate management tools and we help you open your first Sixt rental location fast. To learn more about our Franchise opportunities, please go to sixt-franchise.com, or contact our US Franchise Team at ext. 426 or franchise-usa@sixt.com! sixt.com AUTO R ENTAL N EWS January/February 2014 15