FlightCar currently operates near San Francisco International Airport and Boston’s Logan Airport.
Car owners can drive to FlightCar’s parking lot and leave the car there — for free. If your car is a 2001 model or newer, you can earn money from its rental; the newer the car, the better the chances of it being rented. You don’t make a lot of money, but if your car is a 2008 model or older, you get $10 per rental. If it’s a 2009 or newer, you earn $10 each day it is rented. Luxury brands, like a BMW or Lexus, will earn you $20 a day.
“If your most valuable asset is your house, your second most valuable asset is your car,” said Rajul Zaparde, one of FlightCar’s founders. “When are you not using your car? When you are traveling.”
FlightCar, based in Cambridge, Mass., hopes to eventually disrupt the $11 billion airport car rental market dominated by Enterprise, Avis/Budget and Hertz. FlightCar provides insurance coverage to vehicles while they are being rented out, including $1 million for bodily injury and property damage to third parties.
But airport authorities are crying foul.
The city of San Francisco, which has jurisdiction over SFO, has filed a lawsuit against FlightCar, arguing that the startup is flouting car rental agency rules by skirting fees that other car rental agencies pay to the airport.
In 2012, more than 44 million passengers traveled through SFO. Car rental agencies pay 10 percent of their gross profits to SFO for the cars rented out of the airport, but FlightCar currently does not pay those fees.
In the 2011-12 fiscal year, SFO collected $94 million in fees from the 12 rental car companies that operate on or near the airport, including from Alamo, Dollar, Hertz, Advantage and Payless.
But despite the lawsuit, FlightCar is growing, largely by word-of-mouth. On a typical day, FlightCar rents out 30 cars at SFO.
RelayRides, which operates car-sharing services in several cities, has also introduced a new service near SFO, but it’s slightly different. Car owners don’t make any money. In exchange for letting RelayRides rent out the car, owners receive free parking at the RelayRides lot.
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