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Budget airline Ryanair has launched a new rental service, including a business offer, following a spat with its former car hire provider Hertz.
Known as Ryanair Car Hire, the service involves a partnership between the airline and CarTrawler, which specialises in pooling vehicle rental services through an online platform for both consumer and business users.
The white-label system went live on 1 September on the airline's website and covers "30,000 airport and city locations across 174 different countries". Ryanair, which has a 27% business traveller mix, claims the programme has the capacity to search "1500 leading and independent car rental agents" and offers "the best conversion rate in the business".
The service works in a similar manner to price comparison websites and is said to find the rental company offering a particular type of car at the lowest price.
Big-hitting rental outfits signed up to the scheme include Europcar, Avis, Sixt, Enterprise, Thrifty and, despite the disagreement, Hertz. Other large providers along with a series of smaller, local firms also make up the pool.
Speaking exclusively to BusinessCar, CarTrawler CTO Bobby Healy said: "Across the 86 airlines we work with, 15% of car hire is from business customers. However, it can vary from 10-50% depending on the airline."
Healy said the CarTrawler system allowed airlines, including Ryanair, to set only higher-tier car hire options for fleet customers, which usually meant selecting one of the well-known hire brands.
Healy added: "There is a Ryanair Business Plus car hire proposition, which includes priority booking, no excess mileage and only using on-airport car hire firms."
The move to CarTrawler comes after almost two months where Ryanair was without rental services, following a disagreement with former provider Hertz, the upshot of which was a cancellation of the contract. The dispute is said to have arisen when Hertz alleged that Ryanair's agreement with companies in its global distribution system breached their contract.
The airline claimed it had been working with distribution system companies since April 2014 "with Hertz's knowledge and support". Hertz's long-term and exclusive contract with Ryanair had recently been extended for an additional five years until 2020.
A statement from the airline's boss Michael O'Leary on 2 July, said: "We regret Hertz's decision to end our car hire agreement at such short notice today, at a time that will cause maximum inconvenience to our customers during the peak travel period. We have had a long and successful partnership with Hertz, and it's a pity that this has ended in such an unfortunate and untimely manner."
Michel Taride, group president of Hertz International, added: "We were not able to reach agreement with the airline over a significant contractual dispute in spite of considerable effort."
Both parties have begun legal proceedings and each has boldly staked its claim. Ryanair's O'Leary said: "We have instructed our lawyers to issue proceedings against Hertz for breach of contract.
"Since we expect that any losses arising from this interruption to our car hire services will be recovered from our legal proceedings against Hertz, we do not expect this interruption to have a material impact on current earnings."
Hertz's Taride added: "[We] would never take lightly the decision to end a key relationship.
"We are confident in our legal position and intend to pursue this matter vigorously through the courts."
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