AUSTRALIA. The Australian Airports Association (AAA) Retail & Commercial Forum will feature a dedicated presentation and panel discussion on the airport car rental market.
The event is set to be held from 22-24 July at the Pullman on the Park in Melbourne.
Organised by a partnership between the AAA, The Mercurius Group and The Moodie Davitt Report, the Forum brings together all the key players in the airport non-aeronautical revenue sector. These include airports from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, duty-free and speciality retailers, food & beverage operators, foreign exchange operators, advertising concessionaires, ground transport providers and various advisers and suppliers.
Airport car rentals are an important source of non-aeronautical revenue for several airports across the country and the subject will feature prominently during the Ground Transport Forum, taking place on Day 1 of the Airport Retail & Commercial Forum.
Airports across Australia and New Zealand have been facing increasing disruption of their traditional car rental business from off-airport operators who now have the same access to communicate to car rental consumers through the internet and online demand aggregators.
New entrants to the market, such as Uber Car Share and Kinto, which are using modern app-based technology, are also gaining a share.
In this context, airports are reacting by segmenting their car rental product offerings to reflect changes in the commercial market.
Consequently, the role of disruptors in the airport car rental market will be a key topic of discussion during the Forum.
The car rental discussion panel will kick off with an update from Sunshine Coast Airport General Manager of Aviation & Commercial Scott Norris. He will outline the airport’s innovative approach involving the development of three tiers of offerings for car rental operators.
Joining the discussion will be two of the major off-airport car rental operators. These include Joseph Glover, National Operations Manager at hybrid operator Bargain Car Rental (who have operations at various tiers across airports as well as major off-airport operators) and market leading off-airport operator East Coast Car Rentals Director Rohan Marx.
The panel will also include market-leading online aggregator Vroom, Vroom, Vroom MD and CEO Mike Boyd.
Australian Airports Association COO Adrian Plumb commented: “Car rental operations are an important source of non-aeronautical revenue for most airports, so a discussion on how airports can best serve car rental customers and react to changing market dynamics is what the Forum is all about.”
The Mercurius Group Managing Director Ivo Favotto said: “Segmenting the airport offered to the different segments of the car rental market clearly and transparently allows airports gives airports the capacity and the flexibility to react to market conditions. The traditional Tier 1 operators will always be important, but changing market conditions cannot be ignored.”
The Moodie Davitt Report President Dermot Davitt added: “Ground transport is becoming an increasingly hot topic at the Forum. We’ve previously had panel discussions on retail disruption and are now facilitating the discussion in the car rental space. Another example of the Forum’s role in shaping the airport commercial sector.” ✈
