Catania: Codacons reports suspicious increases in car rental prices

With a complaint that will be presented to the Antitrust, Codacons denounces suspicious increases in the car rental sector at Catania airport, which is known to be involved in the cancellation of flights due to volcanic ash.

Those who today try to book a car through specialized search engines for a few hours at the agencies operating at the Fontanarossa airport, to reach the other airports in Sicily by car, must face prohibitive tariffs, the association denounces. Assuming a rental from 1pm to 5pm, useful time to travel to the other Sicilian airports, the cheapest price by returning the car to Palermo airport is 141 euros, a cost which rises to 181 euros if you leave the car at the Trapani airport and reaches 337 euros if you choose Comiso airport as the return point.

Rates that are extremely higher than those charged in other periods. In fact, Codacons tried to book the same car for the same destinations for the date of Thursday 27 August: the cost starts from 91 euros if you rent the car at Catania airport and return it to Palermo airport, 107 euros at Trapani airport, just 87 euros if you leave the car in Comiso.

This means that those who today use a rental car to reach Comiso airport from Fontanarossa spend up to 287% more, an increase that the Antitrust will now have to shed light on.

Codacons has in fact decided to present a complaint to the Competition Authority asking to open an investigation into the car rental service rates charged at Catania airport in light of the current emergency and the state of necessity of travellers, ascertaining the possible existence of speculative phenomena to the detriment of users.