The second largest international Airport in Portugal after Lisbon-Humberto Delgado Airport in the Portuguese capital is Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport – OPO approx. 10 km north of Porto centre.
The Europcar rental car office at the airport © Photo: Porto-Airport-Car-Rental.com
Tourism in Northern Portugal has steadily increased, and the airport is benefitting from the growing number of travelers.
Car rental companies Porto Airport
All the tourists has materialized an increased demand for rental car services.
As of 2017, Porto Airport has the following car rental companies (RAC’s) operating out of Porto Airport:
Avis Rent-A-Car / Budget
Avis is the quintessential business traveler’s car hire company. The previously dominant position of Avis has been challenged by other, usually cheaper cars for rent, from low cost suppliers.
Therefore, in order to cater for non-business customers, Avis group owned Budget car rental offers lower rates for the same type of cars (at least in Portugal).
Avis is by no means to be written off as ‘too expensive’ before checking the rates online, but usually Avis service and rates are directed at company accounts with discounts for regular business customers who often rent cars with considerable corporate discount rates.
Hertz Rent-A-Car / Firefly
Hertz used to be the strongest competitor to Avis in Europe.
The low cost arm of Hertz is Firefly, which is very, very cheap at times, but customers need to know that the difference between Hertz service and Firefly service, usually is greater than the difference between Avis service and Budget service.
Enterprise / Guerin / Car4Less
Enterprise is a newcomer to Europe.
In Portugal, Enterprise has teamed up with local Portuguese large car hire company Guerin.
Enterprise does not have much presence as such in Portugal, but supplies lots of bookings from abroad and particularly from the States, where Enterprise is the largest car rental company of all car hire companies.
Guerin may not be a well-known brand outside Portugal, but it is to be fully trusted and so is its low cost or ‘leisure’ brand Cars4Less operated by Guerin. As usual: Watch out for possible additional charges in the terms & conditions (rental conditions) when booking a low cost rental car.
Europcar / Interrent / Keddy by Europcar
Europcar has done well in recent years, and in Portugal particularly with its low cost brands Interrent and Keddy by Europcar, which offer very cheap deals on car hire and decent service.
A car from Interrent or Keddy Rent-A-Car may very often be the cheapest car available in Porto Airport.
Sixt Car Rental / Flizzr
Rental car operator Sixt did, for many years, maintain its one-brand strategy disregarding increasing competition from the new low cost car hire brands (Goldcar, Interrent, Firefly).
In Portugal, you may find very good offers from Sixt, but rarely for the cheapest and smallest cars.
The new cheap (low cost) car hire brand Flizzr is operated by Sixt.
Goldcar
Low cost ‘enfant terrible’ Goldcar has been operating in Portugal for a few years.
The good part is that it seems like the Portuguese branch has not applied the same ‘Ryanair tactics’ as has for instance Goldcar in Spain (Majorca Goldcar branch being particularly troublesome). We do, however, advise caution when dealing with Goldcar as they are known to charge very high additional fees for optional extra’s – some of which cannot be avoided.
Often, Goldcar, has very cheap rental car rates (sometimes the cheapest basic rates), but the total bill for hiring a car with Goldcar usually adds up and before you know it, Goldcar is no cheaper and definitely no better than the other low cost rental car suppliers in Porto Airport.
