Elaborate Kahului airport structure to house all industry major players

If there’s a sure sign that car rentals are alive and well, the fact that one U.S. state put in $340 million into an airport facility to accommodate the industry just might speak volumes. That’s exactly what the state of Hawaii accomplished when it created the Kahului Airport Consolidated Rent-A-Car (CONRAC) facility which opened on Tuesday. A multi-level one-stop spot for rental cars, CONRAC is the largest public facility of its kind on the island of Maui.

Even more impressive is that CONRAC, which took three years to build, didn’t require a dime of taxpayers’ money. All the funding came from a daily $4.50 state-imposed facility tax added to car rental fees at the airport. And while Kahului Airport doesn’t get anywhere near the passenger traffic that the Honolulu-based Daniel K. Inouye International Airport enjoys, where the Maui stop really shines is in generating a lot more car rental revenue, the highest generator of funds in all of Hawaii, according to stats held by the state’s Department of Transportation.

Currently, at least 13 car rental companies including Avis, Budget and Enterprise, have offices in the three-story facility, which takes up 1.3 million square feet. With a sleek, futuristic design, CONRAC was built with environmental friendliness in mind with features created to cut down on energy use and waste as well as elements contributing to a higher quality of indoor air throughout the building.

It’s also fleet friendly with enough space for 1,817 return-ready cars, 1,926 stalls for staging and storage with enough parking room to accommodate nearly 700 employees. Elsewhere in the facility are a dozen car wash bays, 11 stations for mechanical and maintenance work and 72 fuel stops. Despite its size, customers won’t need to go from one side of the building to another to take advantage of the rental services available. All companies have customer services offices on the main floor.

CONRAC will also be a stop for Kahului Airport’s recently-added free tramway system that makes more than 80 hourly trips and is designed to cut down roughly 25 shuttle buses. Two trams, each with two cars can accommodate nearly 40 passengers per car along the half-mile circuit that can be completed in six minutes. Besides CONRAC, the tram makes two stops at other airport terminals.

With the facility highly praised for reducing congestion and check-in times, one airport official remarked that the addition of CONRAC was not only a long time coming, but will boost the morale of car rental companies housed in the new building.

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