Germany’s Sixt Expands in U.S. With Airport Car-Rental Counters

(Bloomberg) -- Germany’s Sixt SE snapped up concessions to offer its rental-car services at 11 U.S. airports, accelerating its expansion abroad even as the coronavirus pandemic drags down travel.

The deal was part of a bankruptcy sale involving Advantage Rent a Car and has closed, the German company said Monday. It includes the New York area’s three major airports -- John F. Kennedy International, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty International -- which are key hubs for travelers from Europe.

“Those are of course very interesting to us,” Stefanie Seidlitz, a spokesperson for Sixt, said by phone.

The airports covered by the deal have the potential to generate about $3.4 billion in car-rental sales, roughly the same as the entire German market, Sixt said earlier this month. Additional destinations are Boston, Orlando, Denver, Las Vegas, Houston, San Francisco, Maui and Honolulu, with another station in downtown Los Angeles, Seidlitz said. Before the transaction, the company had 75 locations in the U.S., for a market share of about 2%.

The purchase adds to Sixt’s international expansion. At the height of the pandemic, Sixt increased its car-sharing fleet by 1,000 vehicles in Germany. It also expanded outside its home country for the first time, opening in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague in June, allowing customers to shuttle between the three Dutch cities.

The Wall Street Journal reported the closing of the transaction earlier Monday.

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