Canada

Car Rental at Winnipeg Airport: The best companies

by Mark Rebindaine  |  Published March 28, 2019

Winnipeg’s remote geographical location in relation to other major towns in the region means Winnipeg Richardson International Airport (YWG) serves as the main airport for a large area, which includes Manitoba and large swathes of neighbouring territories such as Saskatchewan and Ontario. And in such an isolated part of the world, you need to be driving around in a reliable vehicle.

Winnipeg International Airport (Photo: Robert Linsdell via Flickr / CC-BY-2.0)

On site, there are four rental companies: Avis, Enterprise, Hertz and National, with the counters located on the main level of the 4-tier Parkade.

To select the best of the multiple options on offer, Travelmag.com have conducted research across several dates to come up with the results shown below. We’ve split our findings into three categories: Most Affordable, Best for Luxury and Best for Minivans – so all the major bases are covered.

Most affordable: Budget & Hertz

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At just $40 per day for a Hyundai Accent (or similar) with unlimited mileage, it would be hard not to pick Budget as the best option for cheap car rentals at YWG Airport. For something a little larger, the 5-seater Ford Focus comes in at $42 per day. Once you get into larger and more luxurious cars, prices become more comparable with other rental car companies. Hertz would be one of these, leasing out 5-seater cars like the Mazda 2 and Toyota Corolla at extremely competitive prices. In general, both rental car companies receive positive customer feedback.

Best for luxury cars: Alamo

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With only four agencies to choose from in YWG airport, the choice of luxury cars is rather limited. Having said that, Alamo seemed to have a larger selection than the other agencies, offering customers a selection which includes the Dodge Charger, the Cadillac 300, Nissan Maximas and a fleet of imposing SUVs. The higher-end sedans start at $77 a day while big body SUVs like the Ford Explorer and Chevrolet Tahoe cost somewhere between $80-95 per day. As an added incentive to book with Alamo, the agency has approval ratings of 8.8 out of 10 – the best of the four agencies.

Best for Minivans: Thrifty & Alamo

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The Dodge Grand Caravan is one of the region’s most popular minivans, so it’s no surprise to find so many of them at Winnipeg International Airport. In this competitive category, most of the rental car companies have prices starting around $85 per day, but on our sample dates Thrifty was renting them out at a mere $68 per day. For slightly larger groups, Alamo rents out the 8-seater Chrysler Town and Country. This vehicle is a slight notch up on similarly sized minivans: known to be easy to drive, it has a plush interior and is surprisingly fuel efficient.