Nonstop charter flights between Taiwan and China could expand after this week’s talks between representatives of the two sides, and car rental operators are among those hopeful that more flights will mean more business.
“The expansion of weekend chartered flights into daily charter flights between Taiwan and China will help the car rental business,” Tien Tien-ming (田天明), president of car rental operator Easyrent (和運租車), said yesterday.
“The spiraling global credit crisis has hit the car rental market in Taiwan hard,” Tien said.
“Therefore, car rental operators here are placing their hopes on the signing of agreements to expand the flights to daily direct charter flights across the Taiwan Strait,” he said.
Easyrent and Carplus (格上租車), the nation’s two major car rental service operators, believe such an agreement will help them because Taiwanese businesspeople who run businesses in China usually opt to rent cars when in Taiwan rather than maintaining their own vehicles.
Chang Hong-kuan (張光宏), a Carplus manager, said that his company has even introduced special incentives targeted at businesspeople returning from China.
“As long as an individual provides proof that he is a Taiwanese businessperson doing business in China, he will get a discount, with rates starting as low as NT$960 a day for sedans,” Chang said.
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