Habersham Airport Shifts Rental-Car Reliance to FBO Drive After Hertz No-Car Reports

Habersham County airport staff reported at the airport’s Nov. 12, 2024 regular meeting that FBO Drive had become the main source of rental cars for airport users, with Hertz retained as a backup. Staff said FBO Drive was working “very well” so far, marking the clearest documented change in the airport’s response to problems travelers had encountered obtaining reserved Hertz vehicles.

For arriving pilots and other airport users, a rental car can determine whether a trip continues beyond the runway. The shift matters because staff had described a breakdown in that connection: travelers with confirmed Hertz reservations sometimes landed to find no car waiting. Moving FBO Drive into the primary role while keeping Hertz as fallback suggests an effort to improve dependability without eliminating the earlier provider entirely.

The change followed concerns raised at the Aug. 13, 2024 airport meeting. Staff then described recurring cases in which arriving pilots held Hertz reservation and confirmation numbers but still had no vehicle available, and said they wanted a solution. By the November meeting, staff described FBO Drive as the airport’s main rental-car source and reported a favorable early experience, though the minutes do not describe the intervening negotiations or implementation steps.

Airport staff were the principal voices recorded in the minutes: in August, they identified the Hertz availability problem and the need for a solution; in November, they said FBO Drive was performing well as the primary source. Hertz remained part of the arrangement as backup, according to that later report. The minutes do not record comments from either company, travelers affected by the earlier missed vehicles, or members of the governing body taking a position on the change.

What is documented is a staff status report: as of Nov. 12, FBO Drive was described as primary and Hertz as backup, with a positive preliminary assessment. The record does not show a governing-body vote, a contract award or another formal action creating the arrangement. It also does not disclose vehicle supply, pricing, service standards, financial terms or whether the early assessment held up after the meeting.

The next public sign of whether the change has lasted would be a later airport meeting update on rental-car availability or a revision to the primary and backup providers. Until then, it remains undecided in the public record whether FBO Drive continued as the main source, whether Hertz kept its backup role, and whether the airport made further changes based on demand or service performance.