What is a Conrac?

If you are not an American Airport Planner, chances are you are not familiar with this term. A CONRAC facility is a Consolidated Rental Car Facility. CON=Consolidated, RAC=Rent A Car. To understand why a Conrac is needed, there needs to be an understanding of the American way of life.

The automobile or car is the central to the American lifestyle. Outside of the big cities like New York and Chicago and the eastern seaboard, the auto reigns supreme. There are drive thrus for everything, not just fast food restaurants but also banks.

Because cars are such a dominant feature, the rental car industry in the US is very large. Passengers either have their own cars parked at the airport, get someone to pick them up, rent a car. Generally, a smaller proportion use cabs or bus or trains to get to and from the airport.

So how do passengers get to the rental car lot to pick up their rental cars? They would wait on the curb for the rental car company bus to pick them up. Once at the lot, they would enter the customer service building and do the necessary paperwork to rent the car. Then they will pick up their car. The variation to this would be to do the paperwork at a counter in the passenger terminal before proceeding to take the bus from the curb to the rental car lot.

For the larger airports, this presented a significant problem as the number of buses circling the terminal buildings would be quite large. (given that they were at least 6 to 9 rental car companies typically competing in a particular airport.

This evolved into the birth of the Consolidated Rental Car Facility. All the rental car counters would be housed in a single facility instead of being scattered all over. Think of it as concentric circles.

The center
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The center of the building would be the customer service area with all the counters and offices of the rental car companies. Customers get to the customer service center by bus or by people mover.

The inner circle
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Once customers have collected their cars, they go to the Ready-Return Area just behind each rental car counter/office. They go to the correct numbered space and pick up their car. This is the same location they will return their rental car.

The outer circle

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The outermost area is the maintenance area for each rental car company. This is where the company cleans, refuels and washes the cars to make them ready for the next customer. They also have maintenance bays for servicing the vehicles.

Typically the amount of land needed for a full Conrac facility is about 80 to 200 acres. (32 to 80 ha)

The newest Conrac to open is the one at Atlanta and it is connected to the terminal by light rail. (click here)

Other Conracs include: Phoenix, Houston Bush, Albuquerque, Dallas Fort-Worth, Kansas City, Anchorage.

There are variants to the concept.

1. Some Conracs don't have the maintenance centers adjacent to the Ready return areas and Customer service centers.

2. Some Conracs can be accessed by foot and there is no need to take a bus or train.