Portugal’s airports operator ANA is running a full page advert in the national press this week to explain its side of the debate over its new car rental tax imposed as from April 1st, claiming that all interested parties were informed of the proposal and were asked for their opinions - but no negative ones were forthcoming.
ANA say that meetings were held with local councils, the national tourist board and local police representatives to explain that by imposing a €10 to €17 ‘per rental’ tax it could improve the customer experience and do away with car rental contracts being signed in the airport’s cafes.
The French-owned airports operator says that it is working to improve the general image for tourist as they pass through Portugal’s airports, adding that the current way that some rental business is transacted gives a negative image.
This new tax seemed acceptable to the country’s tourist board which has remained tight-lipped as a storm of complaints swept across the Algarve with local MPs, mayors, trade groups such as the Algarve Association of Car Renters, and many car rental customers complaining that ANA was profiteering at the expense of rental company jobs and holidaymakers’ spending money.
Algarve MP Cristóvão Norte denounced the "predatory practices" of the airports operator against the car rental companies. Norte believes that ANA "under the guise of wanting to bring discipline to the car rental concession areas has suggested a scheme that is an intolerable abuse of its dominant market position" and which affects an estimated fifty small and medium car rental businesses in the sector.
"It almost seems that this measure was designed to annihilate them and to crush the competition," added the MP.
French infrastructure giant, Vinci Group, has a long-term contract to run Portugal's airports and it is unlikely that the government will get involved in local airport charging policies, having received over €1 billion from the ANA sale.