Car Rental Program Development for Hawaiian Islands Airports

Honolulu, Kahului, Lihue, and Keahole-Kona International Airports Benefit

Each month, the Hawaiian Islands welcome more than 800,000 passengers who spend more than $1 billion during their visit. In addition to air travel and hospitality, the rental car industry is an important element of Hawaiian tourism, as many travelers rent cars at the airport in order to explore the many hidden gems the islands offer.

Ricondo was hired by the State of Hawaii Department of Transportation’s Airports Division (DOT-A) to help create and support a major car rental facilities development program at Hawaii’s commercial airports: including Daniel K. Inouye, Kahului, Lihue, and Keahole-Kona International Airports.

Ricondo coordinated the physical planning and design of the program, and led numerous environmental, operational, business, and financial planning projects as part of the overall program. Projects included site location studies, environmental assessments, traffic studies, public parking capacity studies, bond feasibility studies, common busing/transportation system implementation, and rental car concession agreement development and implementation.

The Ricondo team also provided program management support to DOT-A during the procurement process for construction of the consolidated rental car facility at the Kahului and Daniel K. Inouye International Airports. This included serving as project manager and coordinator between the architect and potential construction bidders, among other tasks, such as handling requests for information, addendums, and substitutions.

Other roles include renewing concession agreements for all rental car companies operating on neighboring islands; assisting the rental car industry in determining requirements for a common busing fleet and in selecting a third-party bus operator; managing an alternative fuel pilot busing program; plus ongoing on-call assistance regarding the rental car program’s financial plan. Mahalo!