Car rental giant Avis Budget Group enjoyed “strong” business travel demand during the third quarter, with sales above both 2019 and 2021 figures.
The US-based group said that it had experienced its busiest ever September, including a “pretty significant” increase in corporate business during the quarter.
This record for September was also achieved with average rental rates at a higher level than in 2021, said Avis Budget CEO Joe Ferraro during an earnings call.
“Most travel organisations are reporting declines in commercial travel compared to 2019 - we have not seen that,” added Ferraro. “We’ve seen terrific growth in government, defence contracting, aerospace, tech companies, logistic companies.”
Ferraro said companies are getting staff together more frequently now following the pandemic. He noted that trade organisations and associations are also holding meetings.
“There’s a resurgent move into the cities,” he said. “We’ve seen it in a lot of our city operations that those places are doing quite well in the middle of the week.”
Avis Budget reported third quarter revenue of $3.55 billion, up 18 per cent year-on-year, and an increase of 29 per cent compared with Q3 2019. International revenue, from all markets outside the Americas, was $844 million in Q3, up by 41 per cent from a year ago.
Net profit was $1.03 billion, the best quarterly result in company history, representing an increase of 53 per cent on the same period in 2021.
This quarter also was the sixth in a row in which the group reported record-high adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) for that given quarter.
The company’s third-quarter rental days increased 17 per cent compared to 2021 to more than 46.5 million days. Revenue per day was $79.21, up 4 per cent from $75.86 in Q3 2021. The average rental fleet increased 18 per cent to about 707,000 with 71.4 per cent utilisation.
During the quarter, Avis Budget successfully launched QuickPass, the company’s touchless service, at major US airports.