Easyjet car hire – Low Cost carrier Easyjet increases its presence in Lisbon Airport
The airport in Lisbon is set to become busier with the introduction of 5 new Easyjet routes starting from April 2012.
From the UK, Easyjet already operates flights to Lisbon Airport out of Edinburgh, Bristol, Liverpool, London-Luton and London-Stansted.
The new Easyjet routes include Barcelona-Lisbon, Asturias-Lisbon, Amsterdam-Lisbon, Venice-Lisbon and Copenhagen-Lisbon.
Easyjet, when adding to its network the new routes to Lisbon, officially makes Lisbon it’s 23rd hub in Europe. For starters, two Airbus A319’s will be stationed in Lisbon Airport.
Car hire with Easyjet-Europcar from Lisbon Airport
When booking your ticket at low cost carrier Easyjet, flying into Lisbon from Britain is often possible from as little as £50-70 for a return ticket when booking well in time.
Easyjet, like most low cost airlines, also offers customers to book hotel accommodation, travel insurance, B&B’s or hostels and even package holidays and Easyjet car hire (through partner Europcar).
Booking a Europcar hire car at the Easyjet web site is fairly straight forward. The most advantageous car hire rates, however, frequently can be found elsewhere.
For this purpose you can compare car hire prices in Lisbon Airport with the well-known search engine Cartrawler Lisbon.
To get the best deal, the search engine include car hire offers from the leading car hire companies Avis Rent-A-Car, Budget, Hertz Rent-A-Car, Europcar, National, Alamo etc., and additionally local well established car hire companies such as Guerin and Auto Jardim.
Some of the rental car suppliers may not be present on all Portuguese locations, but in prime locations like Faro Airport and Lisbon Airport a wide range of car hire companies can be found.
Compare Easyjet-Europcar car hire insurance
Hire car rates with Europcar may be quite advantageous.
If you want to compare directly with other suppliers, it is increasingly important to look at the excess of the rental vehicle’s insurance. The additional charge for no excess car rental insurance can at some companies be unnecessary high.
Compare prices for car hire in Lisbon airport
Often, in Lisbon Airport, car hire companies include insurance excess from €0 to up to €1500 on standard rental cars. This (the excess) is the amount a customer is liable to pay in case of damage or theft of the hire car. More expensive or unusual vehicles may have even higher excess.
For peace of mind – take out excess insurance
Taking out additional insurance for excess liability is not mandatory in Portugal. The rental cars in Lisbon Airport are all insured to the full requirements of the legislation in Portugal and the rest of the EU.
If you want to protect yourself from possibly paying the excess in case of a damage or theft of your rental car, excess insurance is offered at most rental companies.
Excess insurance daily premiums vary a lot and prices can change, especially when booking at the low cost airlines as the charge is seen as a way of making extra profit.
At the Cartrawler search engine, excess insurance is offered at €5.50 per day, which is sometimes half of what airlines and their car hire partner companies are offering.
Europcar hire cars with Easyjet – compare rates on insurance
The Europcar-Easyjet hire car offers include either zero excess, or, more likely, insurance excess of some €500 to €1000 on smaller cars.
For peace of mind Europcar-Easyjet offers to reduce the liability (excess) to zero by way of an excess insurance, which can be a good idea when driving in unfamiliar conditions. The price for the excess insurance is important to add, in case you compare car hire offers with no excess or very limited excess.
Cars are cheap to hire out of season in Portugal. For a week’s rental in Lisbon Airport, the excess insurance may double the total price of hiring a car.
Always compare prices for car hire in Lisbon
The prices for the liability insurance (excess insurance), furthermore, vary considerably between suppliers and may make the Europcar-Easyjet car hire offer less advantageous.
The coverage of the insurance may vary as well. Many excess insurances taken out at the counter, often at high prices, exclude for instance tyre damage and/or damage to the undercarriage of the hire car. The Cartrawler excess insurance offered through Mondial Assistance when booking a car online, covers for damage and theft including damage to undercarriage, glass, tyres, filling of wrong fuel, loss of key etc. Always refer to the policy in case of doubt as to what is covered.
Basically, you always should compare prices for car hire in order not to pay too much. There can be savings up to and even above €50 on a week of car rental from Lisbon airport.
Europcar allow young drivers hiring cars in Lisbon Airport
For younger visitors to Lisbon, Europcar Rent-A-Car has good news.
Provided a valid major credit card and a clean driver’s license (the license usually has to be at least one year old) in the name of the driver can be presented, Easyjet allow drivers from as young as 19 years old to hire the smallest cars in Lisbon Airport.
Normally young drivers under 24, according to the Europcar UK web site, will be asked to pay additionally €5 per day of rental.
