Austin airport's rental car agencies are '100% booked' for eclipse

Those looking to rent a vehicle in Austin for Monday's total solar eclipse may be out of luck — or need to pay a high rate.

City of Austin and Travis County officials, during a Tuesday press conference, said the once-in-a-lifetime celestial event on April 8 would bring a crush of people to Central Texas, with many eclipse-chasers booking a rental to get around.

As a result, the rental agencies operating at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport are "100% fully booked" for available rentals on the day of the eclipse, a spokesperson for the city-owned airport said. They are likewise fully booked on April 9, with reservations then exceeding their inventories.

"If you are flying out the day after the eclipse, it's imperative that you arrive early," said Sam Haynes, the airport spokesperson.

The airport is expecting high traffic, in part, because some visitors are renting vehicles in other parts of the country, driving to Central Texas to see the eclipse and then flying home from Austin's airport, she said.

Twelve rental vehicle agencies operate at the airport, according to the airport website.

Among them is Hertz and its brands Dollar and Thrifty. Hertz is seeing "notable increases" along the path of totality with the highest demand in Dallas and Austin, according to Isabella Sawyer, a Hertz spokesperson. The Dallas area is seeing six times more rentals than this same point last year, she said.

Along the path of totality, Saturday is expected to be the busiest day for picking up rentals, with a "3,000% increase" in advanced bookings for the cities in the eclipse's path compared to the previous year, Sawyer said.

Enterprise Mobility, the parent company of rental agencies Enterprise, National and Alamo, all of which operate at Austin's airport, is seeing increases in areas throughout Texas, Ohio, New England and upstate New York, said Mike Wilmering, an Enterprise spokesperson, in a statement.

Some areas in Texas and Oklahoma are showing more than double the bookings as compared to the same time last year, Wilmering said.

Aside from vehicle rentals, the airport is expecting high traffic the day after the eclipse, Haynes said.

Generally, the Transportation Security Administration advises passengers to arrive about two hours before their scheduled flight to allow time to check bags and pass security screening. Austin airport officials ask travelers for more time: 2½ hours ahead of boarding time for domestic flights and three hours for international flights.

Haynes said those dropping off rental vehicles should arrive earlier, given the expected surge of drop-offs and resulting risk of delays.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin airport's rental car agencies are "100% booked" for eclipse