Metro will have 'zero' impact on car hire business

The start of metro services across Dubai in September will have “zero” impact on demand for rental cars, according to a motor industry figure.

Sam Eltibi, executive director of MENA and Asia Pacific at car rental company Dollar Thrifty, insisted that local residents will still require motor transport when the $4.2bn Dubai Metro goes live on September 9.

He told Arabian Business: “We think the metro is a great thing for the city and people who want to move around, but at the same time some people want to go to far away destinations where the metro won’t take them.

“The metro is a good addition to the transportation mix, but it is not going to touch our business in any way. A few years ago, I was asked a question about Salik and I said the same thing then – it will have zero effect.”

The Dubai Metro’s 52km red line, running from Jebel Ali to Rashidiya, will open this summer while the green line is scheduled to come on line in Mar. 2010. The 23.9 km track will start in Al Qusais, running around Dubai creek, and stretch to Jedaff

Eltibi made the comments while discussing how Dollar Thrifty’s Middle East operation is coping with the economic downturn. He admitted annual profit growth was expected to drop from 30 percent in recent years to eight percent in 2009.

“We will achieve one third of the profit we were doing – but we’re still profitable,” he said.

The financial crisis has led to demand dropping between 6-12 percent in this region, according to Eltibi. He attributed this to a decline in tourists visiting the region.

However, Eltibi said he did not expect any redundancies across the Middle East, which has a fleet of more than 20,000 cars and accounts for 7.2 percent of Dollar Thrifty’s global business.

To stimulate demand in this region, Dollar Thrifty management is planning to introduce pre-paid services through its website. The option enables a car rental customer to pay his or her bill before receiving the car. No date was given for when the service might be available.

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