I am writing this in the offices of clients of mine in Lagos who deal with several car hire companies in the Algarve.
As of this morning, Luzcar reported that they had no vehicles available for the next week and Guerin are reporting that they have no vehicles left for at least the next month.
It appears that owing to the economic down turn and the need to balance short-term summer fleet needs with 10 months of low fleet usage, Algarve car hire firms have reduced their fleets to a level where demand may exceed supply this year.
I was at Faro Airport on Monday and I thought that the fleet parks for many of the car hire companies were emptier than usual. This appears now to have been confirmed.
This situation also seems to mirror reports off similar problems from Spain.
