Honolulu airport to construct car rental hub

Plans to proceed with plans to build a consolidated car rental facility at Honolulu International Airport are moving ahead with customers opting for car hire paying up to $5 per day extra a day in taxes.

The proposed multi-storey facility is anticipated to house six airport car hire providers as well as other car rental agencies located near the airport.

The purpose of the building is to improve the rental car experience for visitors to Honolulu and create operational efficiencies and economies of scales.

As of October, the state of Hawaii had raised almost $12 from a $1 per day car hire tax which took effect in September 2008, and lawmakers have passed the surcharge to pay for design and construction of the consolidated car hire facilities.

The new car hire facility, which is expected to open in 2013, could partly funded by raising the current $1 a day tax to as much as $5 per day, which could raise up to $16 million a year for the state.

At present, car hire firms including Avis, National, Budget, Hertz and Dollar share an open-air facility at the airport.

Other consolidated rental car facilities exist at other airports in the US, including Anchorage, Alaska, to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Costs vary widely and include $170 million spent in Las Vegas and a $419 million five-story facility now being built at the Seattle-Tacoma airport.

President of the not-for-profit watchdog Tax Foundation of Hawaii, Lowell Kalapa, agreed that the car hire facilities at Honolulu International airport needed to be upgraded, but questioned why the state proceeded with a design for a contract for the facility before choosing a location or identifying the project’s cost.