Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport: Rental Car Center

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport: Rental Car Center: "Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport: Rental Car Center"

I just got back from PHX today. The recently opened a new rental car center at the airport. Okay, "at the airport" may be a little generous. It's actually about a 10 minute drive form the airport.

Prior to 2006-01-19, when you left the terminal, you would wait for the shuttle bus for your rental car company to take you to their off site facility. With Hertz there was never much of a wait, which was important when arriving in PHX in August and standing out in the sun to catch a bus.

Now, however, you just board a generic rental car shuttle and it takes you to the new building that houses all the rental car vendors.

The new building appears to be build into a hill, or have large mounds of earth around it, presumably to help with cooling. The new building and ramp complex is huge. In the main customer service center, where they have all the counters, it is at least 100 feet from the doors to the counters. That's just open space. I have no idea why they left so much space; it can't have been cheap, but it is incredibly open.

When you drop off your car to return the airport, you have to catch the right shuttle because each one goes to only it's own terminal.

Over all, the facility is fairly convenient, very clean, and very open. It takes a long time to get there, especially since the shuttles don't run as often as when I only had to catch the Hertz bus.

This trip my rental car was a Pontiac Grand Prix. These new ones are actually pretty nice. The driver seat is comfortable, and the car has some power. It's really a surprising car.