Car rental in South Africa is on an upward trajectory, but the resumption of reliable, affordable flights is essential to regain the highs achieved prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is the message from Savrala GM, Sandile Ntseoane, who describes the biggest challenge for the sector at the moment as the high price of airline tickets and the cost of getting people to destinations. “If no one arrives at the airport, no one rents a car and no one checks in to a hotel or visits a restaurant.”
He says: in terms of volume, the car-rental industry has recovered to about 80%-85% of pre-COVID levels. “From a revenue perspective, however, we are at pre-COVID levels due to more realistic rental pricing and price increases over the last three years. The pandemic has shown us that we could not survive on the cut-throat pricing we had pre-COVID. Although rental prices are still lower than the rest of the world, we are more aligned.”
He adds: ongoing setbacks such as the war in Ukraine and the Toyota factory flooding in Durban (both resulting in vehicle supply delays), the grounding of Comair and China’s COVID-19 lockdown – have hampered full recovery.