Avis Budget reports $113 million Q1 loss

Avis Budget Group reported a first-quarter loss of $113 million on revenue of nearly $2.6 billion compared with a gain of $312 million a year prior on similar reported revenue, according to a US Securities and Exchange filing. 

“To accurately portray the business this quarter and beyond, we need to bifurcate the impacts of non-reoccurring fleet gains, higher vehicles interest and decisions made to right-size our fleet … versus comparisons with a healthy overall revenue environment and our ongoing earnings potential,” Avis Budget CEO Joe Ferraro said on Thursday (2 May) on a first-quarter earnings call. 

The company sold a record number of vehicles during the quarter “to allow for increased utilisation and flexibility,” Ferraro added, “and we saw sequential improvement to our [revenue per day] throughout the months in the first quarter, with March finishing down 3 per cent, with stronger exit trends, which we believe is a positive sign of future pricing.”

First-quarter revenue for the Americas segment was nearly $2 billion, down about 1.1 per cent year over year. However, Ferraro said that “our commercial customer retention rate is nearly 100 per cent, demonstrating the trust and loyalty our partners have in our company”.

Europe, the Middle East and Africa revenue was up 4 per cent to $382 million, while Asia and Australasia revenue declined 1.1 per cent from a year prior to $176 million. 

Overall, Avis Budget reported a 5 per cent year over year increase in volume offset by a 5 per cent decrease in revenue per day (RPD). Its average rental fleet for the quarter in the Americas was about 497,300, up 10 per cent versus Q1 2023, while RPD for the region was down 6 per cent to $67.12. 

International average rental fleet was nearly 170,100, up 1 per cent year over year, with an RPD of $53.86, down about 1 per cent from a year prior.