Hawaii running out of Rental Cars

John Naughton, who lives in Oahu, was supposed to going to a special event in Maui but couldn’t organise his transport ahead of time.
He said: "Several of us were trying to get over there and get cars. My wife and I had a big problem. We couldn't find cars anywhere. I never had this problem before".
Another regular vacationer to Maui, John Farmer from Portland, Oregon, had to cancel his trip because of the lack of vehicles.

He said: "We probably won't come until June, if we can get a car over there."
Chris Payne, senior manager of corporate communications for the Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, said: "There's no secret that the economy has had a dramatic impact on tourism to the islands.”
“With fewer vacationers, we've had no choice but to cut fleets in order to remain profitable and serve customers to the area."

"If we had not cut the fleet in a manner consistent with decreased traffic, we would have had to dramatically cut pricing and it would have a negative impact on our business.”

Mr Payne went on to say in an email to the Maui News that there has been a double digit percentage decrease in Maui fleet numbers of Dollar Rent A Car Systems and Thrifty Car Rental cars, but that he was unable to specify an exact number.
A Maui Visitor’s Bureau spokesman said that they were aware of the problem and were working as fast as possible to fix it.

This Hawaiian car shortage follows a world wide trend of car rental companies cutting their fleets in response to reduced demand, following the global financial crisis.