Unused Rental Vehicles Pile Up Around Kahului Airport Ahead of Quarantine Order
With many travelers opting to leave before a mandatory quarantine takes effect on Thursday, and stay-at-home order take effect on Wednesday, the overflow of returned rental vehicles is starting to pile up around Kahului Airport. The actions are taken as state and county officials attempt to flatten the curve of the COVID-19 pandemic and prevent an overburdened medical system.
“With so few customers, the rental car companies need to store the vehicles, in some cases off airport property,” said State of Hawaii Department of Transportation Public Information Officer Tim Sakahara.
This morning, vehicles were observed parked along the Airport Access Road and neighboring streets near the airport.
The recently completed (2019) Consolidated Rent-A-Car facility on Maui has 1.2 million square feet of space and sits on a 19 acre parcel. The building features a total of 4,436 parking stalls: 3,743 for car rentals; and 693 stalls on the upper level for airport staff/employee parking and space for overflow inventory.
But with the exodus of travelers, the ConRAC is proving to not be enough to accommodate the amount of vehicles no longer in use.
State Transportation officials confirmed that the overflow of returned cars on Oahu is being stored at Aloha Stadium.