Avis Budget Group reported corporate demand improved through the fourth quarter and the full year, with a particular emphasis on blended business and leisure trips, executives said Tuesday during an earnings call.
"There's a lot of business travel, a lot of conventions, leisure … some combination of both," Avis Budget CEO Joe Ferraro said. "We saw the cities start to develop bigger and bigger books of business last year than we had in the past. [A customer] goes on a business trip to a city and then takes [in] a weekend football game or something. We've seen that combination of commercial that leads to leisure, and I do think that's pretty powerful when it comes to rental and rental demand."
Ferraro added, in contrast to companies considering a return to 2019 business travel levels, " our commercial business has grown since 2019," he said.
Avis Budget in 2023 also signed larger corporate accounts with "a price improvement, which is helpful. It's the first time we could say that [because] in many years prior, that was not the case," Ferraro said.
Avis Budget Q4, FY2023 Metrics
ABG reported fourth-quarter 2023 revenue of nearly $2.8 billion, flat compared with Q4 2022 revenue. Full-year 2023 revenue was up slightly to $12 billion, a record for the company. Net income declined 39 percent for the quarter to $260 million and 41 percent for the full year to $1.6 billion.
Q4 2023 revenue for the Americas declined 2 percent year over year to less than $2.2 billion. Full-year revenue was down 1 percent versus 2022 to about $9.3 billion. International quarterly revenue was $597 million, representing a 5 percent increase. Full-year international revenue was up 6 percent over 2022 to nearly $2.7 billion.
ABG reported more than 31 million rental days for the fourth quarter in the Americas, up 6 percent year over year. International quarterly rental days were up 3 percent to more than 11 million. Americas full-year rental days were up 5 percent to more than 127.6 million, while international was up 6 percent to more than 45.6 million.
Fourth-quarter revenue per day globally was $65.78, down 5 percent from a year prior. It also was down 5 percent on an annual basis, to $69.29. ABG's total average rental fleet for the quarter was more than 701,000, and about 691,500 for the full year, up 8 percent and 6 percent, respectively, year over year.
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